Mohamed bin Zayed, president of the United Arab Emirates, met in Abu Dhabi on Thursday morning with Yehuda Kaploun, a rabbi and the U.S. State Department’s special envoy for monitoring and combating antisemitism, a diplomatic source told JNS.
Kaploun was seen leaving the leader’s residence.
The U.S. special envoy also met with other rulers and senior government officials, the source said. Specific details were unavailable.
Kaploun’s office declined to comment about the meeting and said that it doesn’t discuss the ambassador’s travel itinerary with the media.
Deputy Emirati Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdullah bin Zayed met with Kaploun in Washington in February.
The Emirati foreign affairs ministry said at the time that the Washington meeting focused on U.S.-UAE “strategic relations and addressed several issues of mutual concern, particularly initiatives aimed at advancing dialogue and tolerance, fostering a culture of coexistence and countering hate speech and extremism in all their forms.”
A member of the Abraham Accords, the UAE says that it has a “longstanding approach of promoting tolerance and human fraternity” and “attaches special importance to supporting international initiatives aimed at combating antisemitism.”
Thursday’s meeting came on the heels of Kaploun’s recent cooperation with the Saudi Arabian government on changing its educational curriculum to remove substantial portions of antisemitic rhetoric.
Kaploun visited the Dominican Republic and Colombia last week. The stop in Santo Domingo coincided with the Dominican government’s announcement that it will implement the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of Jew-hatred.
