UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan stressed the need for a Gaza ceasefire and rejected a potential Israeli annexation of Palestinian territories in a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York on Friday, according to statements by the UAE Foreign Ministry and a senior Emirati official.
Hebrew media reported ahead of the meeting that the top Emirati envoy was also set to update Netanyahu on US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war, and warn that the UAE’s normalization agreement with Israel could be harmed as a result of potential annexation.
Netanyahu’s office has yet to comment on the meeting, which took place on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. The premier’s right-wing flank has demanded he annex parts of the West Bank in response to a recognition of Palestinian statehood by a number of Western nations, including Britain, France and Canada, earlier this week.
It was Netanyahu’s first public meeting with a senior Gulf official since Israel’s September 9 attack on Hamas leaders in Qatar, which the UAE condemned and protested by summoning Israel’s deputy ambassador.
According to Emirati state news agency WAM, the Friday meeting was also attended by UAE Ambassador to Israel Mohammed Mahmoud Al-Khaja and the Emirates’ special envoy Lana Nusseibeh.
During the meeting, the UAE foreign minister “stressed the urgent need to end the war in Gaza, reach a permanent and sustainable ceasefire, prevent further loss of life, and put an end to the tragic conditions facing civilians,” said the Emirati Foreign Ministry on X.
“He also reaffirmed the UAE’s support for all efforts to achieve a comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, said the ministry.
He also expressed his country’s support for international efforts to release “all the hostages and detainees,” WAM reported.
Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the Emirati president, wrote on X after the meeting that bin Zayed had conveyed to Netanyahu “the UAE’s decisive position closing the file on Israeli annexation of Palestinian lands.”
Terror groups in Gaza still hold 47 of the 251 hostages abducted in the October 7 onslaught, as well as the body of a soldier killed fighting in the Strip in 2014. At least 26 of the 48 captives have been confirmed dead by the IDF. Twenty are believed to be alive, and there are grave concerns for the well-being of two others, Israeli officials have said.
Trump’s plan to end the war in Gaza, as revealed exclusively Saturday by The Times of Israel, would see Israel free several hundred Palestinian security prisoners serving life sentences, over 1,000 Gazans arrested since the start of the war, and the bodies of several hundred Palestinians, in exchange for the return of the 48 remaining hostages.
Read more: Revealed: US 21-point plan for ending Gaza war, creating pathway to Palestinian state
Israel expects that the UAE will play a major role in governing post-war Gaza, according to Channel 12. The two countries established formal relations in 2020 as part of the Abraham Accords, a normalization agreement brokered by Trump between Israel and several Arab nations.
Citing an Emirati source ahead of the meeting, Channel 12 said bin Zayed would warn Netanyahu that the UAE sees the Abraham Accords “as a cornerstone for a better future in the region… and at the same time will stress the United Arab Emirates’ deep concern about recent developments, particularly actions that endanger the chances of the two-state solution.”
“He will warn against dangerous steps, such as the callous attack on Qatar and annexation in the West Bank, which could endanger this historic accomplishment,” the source added.
In his address to the General Assembly on Friday, Netanyahu rejected Palestinian statehood and accused the Western countries that recognized it of rewarding the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said Thursday that he would not let Israel annex the West Bank.
Nusseibeh, the Emirati special envoy, also told The Times of Israel earlier this month that such a move would be a “red line” and “end the vision of regional integration.”
Jacob Magid and Reuters contributed to this report.