Israel, UAE Leaders Hold Post-accord Phone Talk

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the UAE's Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan have spoken by phone to build on their countries' normalisation accord, Sheikh Mohammed said in a tweet Monday. 

In the call initiated by Netanyahu, the two leaders agreed that the deal signed at the White House on September 15 "opens the way to a new era of cooperation", he wrote.

They also discussed joint efforts to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.

Netanyahu, for his part, told the Israeli cabinet that he had spoken at the weekend with his "friend" Sheikh Mohammed, who is crown prince of Abu Dhabi and effective ruler.

"I invited him to visit Israel, he invited me to visit Abu Dhabi, but before that we'll see here a delegation from the UAE, and another delegation of ours will go there," the prime minister said.

The normalisation deals signed the same day with both the United Arab Emirates and fellow Gulf state Bahrain "reflect the dramatic change in Israel's regional standing", he said.

"Arab nations want to make peace with us since they see how we turned Israel into a regional power."

Netanyahu said that he told the prince the Israel-UAE deal would be ratified this week by his government and then in parliament.