UAE flatly denies Netanyahu's claim of a secret wartime visit, calling Israel relations "public"

A claim that should have been a diplomatic coup turned, within hours, into a public quarrel between two Abraham Accords governments. The Israeli prime minister's office said on Wednesday evening that Benjamin Netanyahu had made an undisclosed visit to the United Arab Emirates during the war with Iran, met President Mohamed bin Zayed, and produced what it called a "historic breakthrough" in relations. The UAE foreign ministry, in a same-night statement carried by state news agency WAM, said no such visit took place.

The Emirati statement was unusually blunt for an Abraham Accords partner. "The UAE's relations with Israel are public and were established within the framework of the well-known and publicly declared Abraham Accords," it said. "These relations are not based on secrecy or clandestine arrangements." A WAM follow-up on Thursday morning reiterated the position.

Israeli officials briefed local outlets that the meeting took place on March 26 in a city close to the Oman border, and that Mossad director David Barnea had separately made at least two wartime visits to coordinate operations. Netanyahu's former spokesman, who has since left government, said publicly that he had accompanied the prime minister on the trip and stood by the account.

Iran's foreign ministry called the alleged visit "unforgivable" and said any such coordination would constitute "collusion against the Iranian people." Iranian state media seized on the discrepancy between Jerusalem and Abu Dhabi to argue that the UAE was now under domestic pressure to back away from cooperation that had become politically toxic at home.

The episode lands at an awkward moment for Gulf diplomacy. Trump and Xi were meeting in Beijing on the same day Netanyahu's office published its account, and both leaders endorsed language on keeping the Strait of Hormuz open. Western diplomats said the UAE, which has worked carefully to maintain economic ties with Iran while hosting US forces, would view any suggestion of wartime collusion as actively damaging.

Israeli analysts suggested the timing of the disclosure — five months after the alleged meeting — was domestic, aimed at shoring up Netanyahu's standing as his coalition weighs further mobilisation. Whether the prime minister's account survives contact with the UAE's denial will likely depend on whether either side can produce documentary evidence neither has so far volunteered.