Yossi Cohen, head of Israel’s foreign intelligence service Mossad, has visited the UAE for security talks, just days after the countries agreed to establish diplomatic ties in a move that angered Palestinians.
Cohen discussed “cooperation in the fields of security” with the UAE’s national security adviser, Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan, official UAE news agency WAM reported on Tuesday.
“The two sides discussed prospects for cooperation in the fields of security as well as exchanged points of view on regional developments and on issues of common interest” including efforts to contain Covid-19, WAM said.
Israel-UAE tensions had run high in 2010 after Mossad was widely blamed for the assassination in a Dubai hotel room of an operative for the Palestinian group Hamas, Mahmoud Al Mabhouh.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week called Cohen to thank him for Mossad’s assistance “in developing the ties with the Gulf states over the years, which assisted in bringing the peace treaty to fruition”, the Prime Minister’s office said.
Netanyahu on Monday appeared on Sky News Arabia, in his first-ever interview with the Abu Dhabi-based network. “This is a great moment…we are making history,” he said, adding: “This is a combination of limitless possibilities.”