Channel 12: Secret Israeli-Emirati Meetings to Coordinate Positions Against Iran

Israeli and Emirati officials held, in recent weeks, a series of secret meetings in a third country, with the aim of coordinating positions on Iran and discussing joint steps in international forums, provided that any moves are implemented in coordination with the United States.

Channel 12 reported that the meetings were not held in Israel or the UAE, but in a third country whose name was banned from publication, and coincided with rounds of escalation and mutual attacks between Iran and the United States.

The report mentioned that Emirati officials expressed strong opposition to the memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran, and considered that it gives Iran an opportunity for procrastination and economic recovery, without making actual concessions in return.

It added that the two sides discussed initiatives to coordinate moves against Iran in international frameworks and forums, but they agreed that no steps of this kind would be implemented except in prior coordination with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.

The channel quoted Western diplomats as saying that the UAE, unlike other Gulf countries, deals more strictly with Iran and sees no basis in its current policies for overcoming differences with it.

The diplomats claimed that Abu Dhabi is not affected by Tehran's attempts to buy time, and that its ability to export oil and gas through alternative routes to the Strait of Hormuz enhances, in their estimation, the intersection of interests between it and Israel in confronting Iran.

Since the signing of the normalization agreement between the UAE and Israel in 2020, relations between the two sides have expanded from the diplomatic and economic track to security and military fields, which have been strengthened against the backdrop of the recent Israeli-American war on Iran.