Senior Emirati scholar says ‘war criminal’ Netanyahu never visited UAE

Senior Emirati scholar says ‘war criminal’ Netanyahu never visited UAE Submitted by MEE staff on Thu, 05/14/2026 - 20:38 The Israeli prime minister's office revealed earlier this week that the trip was made in March A man on the phone walks by a billboard for the 'Make it in the Emirates' conference, in Abu Dhabi, UAE, on 4 May 2026 (Amr Alfiky/Reuters) Off Emirati scholar Abdulkhaleq Abdulla has called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a "war criminal" who is wholly unwelcome in the United Arab Emirates, after the country's foreign ministry issued a statement denying that Netanyahu ever came to visit UAE ruler Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan.  Netanyahu made a "secret" visit to the UAE in March, amid the US-Israeli war on Iran,  his own office said in a statement on Wednesday.  "There is no welcome whatsoever for a war criminal and the killer of Gaza's children on the pure soil of the Emirates," Abdulla, who is a non-resident fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, DC, wrote on X on Thursday. "The visit that Netanyahu is talking about is a fabrication from his sick imagination, and it is well known that he is a prolific liar who released this lie to serve opportunistic electoral purposes." In a statement, the UAE foreign ministry said its "relations with Israel are public and conducted within the framework of the well-known and officially declared Abraham Accords, and are not based on non-transparent or unofficial arrangements". It called on media outlets "to exercise accuracy and professionalism, and to refrain from circulating unverified information or promoting misleading political narratives".  Both Israeli and Arab sources ...

Original source: Middle East Eye