Abu Dhabi prepares to receive first flight from Tel Aviv

Aya Ezz

The peace agreement between the United Arab Emirates and Israel is opening many channels of cooperation between the two states.

The spokesman of Israel’s national carrier, El Al, declared that the Israeli carrier would operate its first commercial flight to the UAE on September 1.

He said the two states would move ahead in the normalization of relations in the coming period.

The flight will take off from Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. It will have an Israeli delegation and some aides of U.S. President Donald Trump, who brokered the peace deal on August 13, on board.

An American official revealed that Jared Kushner, who is a senior advisor to Trump, would be one of the Trump aides to travel to Abu Dhabi on board of the El Al flight which will take off at 10:00 a.m. on August 31.

Reuters quoted the El Al spokesman as saying that the same plane would leave Abu Dhabi for Tel Aviv on Tuesday noon.

This will make the United Arab Emirates the first Gulf state to have official commercial dealings with Israel.

Israel will be able to enter Abu Dhabi and Dubai in an official manner as well. As a move, this will contribute to bringing international investments to the two countries.

New move

Political analyst Abdel Khabir Attallah described the first flight between Israel and the United Arab Emirates as one good step on the road of peace between the two states.

The commercial flights will boost peace between the two countries, Attallah told The Reference.

He added that each of the two states would benefit commercially and politically from the other.

Attallah noted that the presence of aides of President Trump on the plane travelling from Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi gives signals about the strength relations between the UAE and the U.S. are preparing to assume.

These relations, he said, can play an important role in settling the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.