Jerusalem —
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu showed UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed new Israeli intelligence indicating Iran is resuming progress on its nuclear program during a visit to the country on Sunday, an Israeli source with knowledge of the meeting told CNN.
Among the information shared by Netanyahu were details of new construction at the Pickaxe mountain site — about 140 miles south of the capital Tehran — seen as a key location for possible Iranian efforts to rebuild its nuclear program.
On Sunday, an Israeli source familiar with the visit told CNN that the unannounced meeting was dominated by discussion of Iran, an arena where the two countries have deepened their cooperation, including during the current Iran war.
WAM, the UAE’s state news agency, confirmed that Sheikh Mohammed and Netanyahu held a meeting in the country, marking the first time the Emiratis publicly acknowledged a visit by Netanyahu.
The two leaders “discussed bilateral relations between the UAE and Israel and ways to strengthen and further develop them,” WAM reported.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s office said that the meeting focused on “strengthening relations between the two countries and regional challenges.”
The visit included Netanyahu’s wife, the head of the National Security Council, the head of the Mossad, a military secretary, and a political adviser, the office said.
The meeting was also attended by a senior Saudi security official, two sources with knowledge of the visit told CNN. According to one source, the talks also discussed recent regional developments, including the Houthi militia in Yemen, the vital Bab al-Mandeb waterway at the mouth of the Red Sea, as well as the Strait of Hormuz. Saudi officials have denied anyone attended the meeting.
The source added that Netanyahu told the meeting that Israel assesses Iran could initiate an attack in the region in the coming weeks.
The rare trip came exactly one month before Israel’s October 27 election and against the backdrop of heightened political controversy in Israel over reporting by Haaretz and The New York Times alleging that Sheikh Mohammed had warned Netanyahu of a major Hamas operation days before the October 7, 2023, attack.
The Atlantic separately reported that Egypt’s intelligence chief Abbas Kamel flew to Israel on September 26, 2023, to warn that Gaza would “blow up.” And on Sunday, The Wall Street Journal reported that there were at least three Egyptian warnings conveyed to Israel about Gaza, the last one in a phone call to Netanyahu, just days before the attack.
Netanyahu has repeatedly denied receiving any warning and has dismissed the reports as fabricated lies meant to damage him electorally.
“I never met or spoke to the Egyptian intel chief before Oct. 7, no warning was conveyed to me,” the prime minister posted on X on Monday. “Foreign and hostile states and actors including Arab states are behind the false blood libels.”
But his rivals have used the allegations to make accountability for the failure to prevent the October 7, 2023, attack a central campaign issue.
After initial reports of a warning from Sheikh Mohammed, the UAE’s Foreign Ministry said earlier this month that it “does not comment on media stories or speculation regarding conversations between government leaders,” but it did not deny the call. “When necessary, all relevant intelligence has been and continues to be communicated between the relevant entities,” the statement said.
At the time, an Israeli source familiar with the matter said Netanyahu’s office tried to get the UAE to deny the report, but the UAE only agreed to issue a statement about intelligence sharing.
Netanyahu’s Likud party subsequently issued a statement, posted on the prime minister’s X account, alleging “blatant foreign interference” in Israel’s elections by UAE-based Palestinian politician Mohammed Dahlan. The party provided no evidence for the claim.
Neither Israel nor the UAE mentioned the reported October 7 warning in their Monday statements about Netanyahu’s trip.
Netanyahu’s rivals, meanwhile, have seized on the reported warning to renew their attacks on his handling of the events leading up to October 7.
Gadi Eizenkot, currently polling as the prime minister’s main challenger in Israel’s upcoming elections, said Saturday that the revelation about the warning “leaves no room for doubt: Netanyahu led, with blindness, arrogance and irresponsibility, the State of Israel to the greatest disaster in its history.”
In May, Netanyahu’s office said the prime minister had secretly visited the UAE in March, during the early days of the Iran war, calling it a “historic breakthrough.” The UAE foreign ministry, however, denied his claim at the time as “completely unfounded.”
During the war, Israel is also said to have deployed an Iron Dome missile defense system to the UAE and Israeli officials have said security cooperation between the two countries reached unprecedented levels.
CNN Eyad Kourdi contributed to this report.
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