The senior Israeli and Us delegation flew out from Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi today in the first-ever El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. (TASE: ELAL) commercial aircraft permitted to fly over Saudi airspace.
The delegations will remain in Abu Dhabi for 36 hours for talks with senior UAE officials. Headed by Meir Ben-Shabbat the head of the National Security Council, the Israeli delegation includes officials from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Finance, Health, Science and Technology, Economy and Industry, Region Cooperation, the Population Authority, the Cyber Authority, the Chief Scientist and the Innovation Authority.
The US delegation is headed by President Trump's senior advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner and the US Advisor for National Security Robert O'Brien.
At the request of the UAE, seven working groups have been set up in the fields of diplomacy, finance, science and technology, tourism, culture, agriculture, and cybersecurity-intelligence. In this initial stage, the aims of the meetings are for the Israelis to talk with their UAE counterparts on the content of agreements which will be drawn up. The agreements will be signed in Washington in three weeks.
Before boarding the plane to Abu Dhabi, Ben-Shabbat said, "Our aim is to achieve a joint work plan for promoting relations in a large range of areas - tourism, aviation, innovation, science, technology, health, economics and many other topics. This morning, the traditional saying 'go in peace' takes on for us a special significance."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on August 31, 2020 © Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2020