UAE-Israel Summit is Suspended

The Misbar investigation found the claim to be misleading.  It is true that Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan (MBZ), the ruler of Abu Dhabi, was angered by the abuse of the normalization agreement with Israel for Netanyahu's election campaign. Still, he did not cancel the summit but had it suspended. MBZ halted preparations for the meeting, which was supposed to occur in April in Abu Dhabi, to be attended by Netanyahu and a Biden administration official and heads of the Arab states that normalized relations with Israel. 

Netanyahu has been exploiting the relationship with UAE for election purposes, set to take place tomorrow, including giving an interview in which he claimed MBZ "volunteered" to invest $10 billion in Israel and that MBZ told him he believes in his economic leadership. However, this investment isn't volunteered, but rather a fund set up. Last week, the UAE said that the fund “will invest in and alongside Israel, across sectors including energy manufacturing, water, space, healthcare, and agri-tech.” The UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology added that the investment fund is “commercially driven and not politically associated.” 

“We are at a very early stage in studying the laws and policies in Israel,” Sultan Aljaber indicating that there are some issues to resolve before investments. 

UAE’s former minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Gergash, wrote a scathing post on Twitter clarifying his government's position, saying that “the UAE will not be a part in any internal electioneering in Israel, now or ever,” as seen below. Therefore, the Misbar team concludes while the reasonings are true, the cancellation claim is misleading.