Secrets and mysteries are rare commodities in the modern world of 24-hour live news and omnipresent social media keeping tabs on our every movement.
But last week we enjoyed precious examples of both, amid claim and counter-claim in the murky world of diplomacy in the Middle East.
First there was a genuine show-stopper of a revelation: that Benjamin Netanyahu had flown into the UAE at the end of March, on a secret mission in the middle of a regional war while Iranian missiles were flying around the Gulf.
Reports said Netanyahu and the Emirati president met in Al Ain, an oasis city near the border with Oman, and that the meeting lasted several hours. Soon, the prime minister’s office confirmed some details.
A statement on X declared: “In the midst of Operation Roaring Lion, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secretly visited the United Arab Emirates, where he met with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed.
“This visit has led to a historic breakthrough in relations between Israel and the UAE.”
United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (Image: Getty Images)Getty Images
One of Netanyahu’s former aides, Ziv Agmon disclosed how the UAE president picked up the Israeli prime minister and drove him himself.
Amon posted: “As someone who knows the UAE well and has lived there for a long time and who accompanied the prime minister on the historic trip, which has been top secret to this day, I can say that the prime minister was received in Abu Dhabi with the honour of kings!
“Sheikh Bin Zayed, his family and other dignitaries received us and were happy to see the Israeli prime minister on their soil.
“The Sheikh highly respected the prime minister and drove the prime minister himself in his personal car from the plane to the palace.
“The things that the prime minister concluded in this amazing visit will be spoken for generations to come. Such a great success!”
More information had come out, such as how a covert flight reportedly took place while Israeli airspace was fully shut – without anyone cottoning on.
Sources suggest a deal was reached on an Iron Dome shipment. It also emerged that the Mossad and Shin Bet chiefs had paid a visit.
What an altogether extraordinary story: but almost immediately, there was a further dramatic twist.
The Emirates came out with their own official statement that suggested Netanyahu’s clandestine trip may not, in fact, have happened at all.
Officials said bluntly: “UAE Denies Reports Regarding Visit by Israeli Prime Minister or Receiving Any Israeli Military Delegation.
“The United Arab Emirates denies reports circulating regarding an alleged visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the UAE, or receiving any Israeli military delegation in the country. The UAE reaffirms that 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. Accordingly, any claims regarding unannounced visits or undisclosed arrangements are entirely unfounded unless officially announced by the relevant authorities in the UAE.”
What had really happened?
Well-placed sources speaking to the JC are adamant: the visit did indeed take place.
The question is why the UAE was so quick to deny it.
The reason was, according to sources, this was never supposed to become public until after the war. According to an Emirati source speaking to the JC, there may have been a very simple reason for the public pushback: timing.
“What I know is that the visit did happen, but it was never supposed to be leaked because of how sensitive the situation is right now, especially with Iran,” the source said, requesting anonymity.
“From what I understand, it wasn’t supposed to be spoken about until after the war. I honestly don’t know how it got out. Israel has a serious leakage problem when it comes to sensitive information.”
The UAE has maintained a deliberately low profile regarding its ties with Israel, despite security cooperation between the two countries deepening significantly in recent months.
That cooperation has reportedly included the deployment of elements of the Iron Dome system in the UAE, which the source says is why Bibi has earned respect.
US Ambassador Mike Huckabee said the Iron Dome deployment was the result of an “extraordinary relationship between the UAE and Israel” based on the Abraham Accords.
Israel and the US’s war with Iran appears to have deepened those relations – and developed the alliance militarily too.
The UAE’s Ministry of Defence said that the country had engaged a total of 551 ballistic missiles, 29 cruise missiles, and 2,265 drones since the war broke out in late February, when the US and Israel attacked Iran.
An Emirates aircraft flies past plumes of smoke from an ongoing fire near Dubai International Airport on March 16, 2026. Iranian missiles and drone attacks hit across the UAE. (Image: Getty Images)AFP via Getty Images
According to a Wall Street Journal report, the UAE was involved in undisclosed attacks on Iran during the conflict, among them an alleged strike on a refinery on Lavan Island.
Saudi Arabia reportedly also launched numerous unpublicised strikes on Iran in retaliation for attacks carried out in the kingdom during the war. If confirmed, it would be the first time it has ever done so on Iranian soil.
The political backdrop explains why nerves in Abu Dhabi were already frayed. During the conflict, Iran struck several targets inside the emirates and repeatedly accused Gulf states of collaborating with Israel and the United States.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi later declared that Netanyahu had effectively confirmed what Tehran’s intelligence services had “long ago” warned about: covert coordination between Israel and Gulf states. Such “collusion,” he warned, was “unforgivable,” adding that those involved “will be held to account”.
Which is precisely why, if Netanyahu did quietly appear in the Emirates, nobody in the region was especially eager for the world to know about it mid-war.
The Emirati source said: “The UAE is no longer operating from fear. There was significant military collaboration between Israel and the Emirates, and that alliance is viewed in the region as a formidable force, especially with US backing. The concern now is that some Gulf countries still underestimate the Iranian threat or are too cautious to confront it directly.”
The source also stressed that Iran’s actions against the UAE cannot simply be explained away as retaliation for ties with Israel.
In their view, Tehran will always find a justification to pressure Gulf states regardless. Their broader argument was that the Iranian regime’s pattern of escalation and intimidation cannot be allowed to become the region’s normal reality.
“This regime cannot remain in place – that’s the core issue. Unfortunately, some countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) still do not see the threat as clearly or as urgently as they should, and they may ultimately suffer the consequences of that. Iran is trying to push the narrative that the UAE is being targeted specifically because of its alliance with Israel, but that ignores the wider reality. Other countries in the region, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, were also hit hard.”
So, one mystery solved.
But now, there is one final twist, particularly distinctive to the Machiavellian chicanery of Israeli politics.
According to Hebrew-language media, Netanyahu disclosed the secret trip because he knew former prime minster Naftali Bennett was visiting the UAE, and wanted to stop his political rival accruing any reputational gain ahead of the election later this year.
Was Netanyahu really trying to outmanoeuvre Bennett before he could score his own diplomatic coup? Or is that version of events itself spin emerging from Bennett’s camp?
More mysteries, more leaks and more political gamesmanship – all in a day’s work during Israel election season in the endlessly murky world of Middle East diplomacy.
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