Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett held a series of meetings with top United Arab Emirates officials in Abu Dhabi on Monday, according to Hebrew media reports.
Bennett met with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed and his foreign minister, Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, at the presidential palace in the Emirati capital, Channel 12 News reported. The meeting was said to have lasted some three hours.
Former Israeli Prime Minister @naftalibennett met with UAE President Sheikh @MohamedBinZayed and Foreign Minister @ABZayed.
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) January 28, 2025
[Image via Ch.12] pic.twitter.com/xwtUMQ8Pdz
Between June 2021 and June 2022, Bennett headed the short-lived coalition government of centrist, left-wing and far-left parties that briefly ousted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
He retired from Knesset after the fall of the Lapid-Bennett government in December 2022, but last year hinted at a possible return to politics.
“Three years ago today, I took the oath of allegiance as the 13th Prime Minister of the State of Israel,” tweeted on June 13, 2024. “We did it then, and we can do it again. We will establish a state here that is worthy of this people,” he continued.
While in office, Bennett visited Abu Dhabi on multiple occasions as part of the cooperation brought forth by the Abraham Accords, which the Trump administration and Netanyahu helped broker in 2020.
