Other Gulf states joined Netanyahu's Abu Dhabi talks on Iran, reports say

Update, 29 September, 00:07 Israel time

Representatives of other Gulf states took part in Netanyahu's meeting in the Emirates, two Israeli outlets reported on Monday evening, the first accounts describing the talks as more than a one-on-one with Mohammed bin Zayed. Israel Hayom reported, citing two Gulf diplomatic officials, that senior figures from at least two further Gulf countries without diplomatic ties to Israel attended. The officials told the paper that Iran was the main subject, with participants discussing several aspects of it. The portion of the report available does not name the countries.

A Ynet alert said envoys from Saudi Arabia and other regional states were present. Ynet named Saudi Arabia; Israel Hayom did not name any country. Neither outlet said who led those delegations, and neither the Emirati statement nor the Prime Minister's Office account mentions other participants.

Separately, N12 correspondent Yaron Avraham wrote that the Prime Minister's Office had formally confirmed the channel's disclosure that Netanyahu and his wife met the Emirati president in Abu Dhabi.

Update, 28 September, 23:07 Israel time

The United Arab Emirates has officially acknowledged Netanyahu's visit, the first time Abu Dhabi has publicly confirmed a trip by him to the country. The Times of Israel reported that the state Emirates News Agency said Mohammed bin Zayed received the prime minister and that the two discussed ties between the countries and how to strengthen and develop them. The brief statement did not mention Iran.

Ynet reported that Netanyahu had asked the Emirati president to deny reports that he warned Israel before October 7, 2023, and noted that the Emirati statement contained no such denial. The Times of Israel likewise said the statement made no reference to that request.

Shortly afterwards the Prime Minister's Office issued its own account. As posted by Channel 12 commentator Amit Segal, the office said Netanyahu and his wife went at the invitation of bin Zayed, and that the visit covered strengthening bilateral ties and regional challenges. It listed the participants as the heads of the National Security Council and the Mossad, the military secretary and the prime minister's diplomatic adviser, a role not previously named in the delegation.

Segal also wrote that the Emirates had never before announced such a meeting with Netanyahu, though it did so for meetings with Naftali Bennett as prime minister. In an earlier post he said the Emiratis normally keep well away from Israeli politics, which made the invitation during the campaign notable. That is his assessment.

Update, 28 September, 22:08 Israel time

The Prime Minister's Office has for the first time publicly addressed Netanyahu's Abu Dhabi trip, saying the Shin Bet has lodged a complaint with Israel's chief military censor over Channel 12's reporting of it. Haaretz reported that the office said the broadcast put the lives of Netanyahu and his wife, Sara Netanyahu, at risk. Her presence on the trip had not been reported before.

According to the statement as carried by News.co.il, the Shin Bet wants the censor to take legal action against the channel. The agency said the timing of the disclosure endangered the prime minister, the operation and personnel on the ground, and that revealing how the visit was carried out exposed its working methods and would raise the risk to future operations.

Ynet described the move as unusual and said the office quoted both the Shin Bet and the Mossad, accusing Channel 12 of publishing roughly an hour before Netanyahu landed back in Israel. The other reports attribute the complaint to the Shin Bet alone.

The office also named the delegation. News.co.il listed the Mossad chief, the head of the National Security Council, Maj. Gen. Guy Markizano, the military secretary, and the head of the Shin Bet's security division, along with aircrew. Israel Hayom had earlier described the Shin Bet participant as a senior VIP Protection Unit official. None of the new reports includes a response from Channel 12.

Update, 28 September, 18:07 Israel time

Open-source flight tracking shows several other aircraft landing in Abu Dhabi around the time of Netanyahu's arrival, according to the Israeli Telegram channel Abu Ali Express, which asked whether a wider summit took place. The channel said the prime minister's plane, registered M-ULTI, crossed Jordanian and Saudi airspace and touched down at 16:13 UAE time. Channel 12, as relayed by The Times of Israel, had put the landing at 3:10 p.m.

The channel listed these other movements on the same day:

• A Libyan aircraft it linked to Khalifa Haftar (P4-KH5i9) landing at 16:28
• A Moroccan air force C-130 (CN-AOF) landing at 14:10
• A Qatari government jet (A7-MHH) landing at 16:18
• An Emirati-owned plane (A6-FAM) collecting an unidentified passenger in Riyadh

The channel did not say who was aboard any of these aircraft. No outlet or government has reported that Netanyahu met anyone other than Mohammed bin Zayed, and the idea of a broader gathering is presented as a question rather than an established fact.

Separately, a Haaretz opinion piece by Esther Solomon framed the trip in electoral terms, noting that Netanyahu gave up a day of campaigning 30 days before the election. That is the writer's analysis, not a report of what was discussed.

Update, 28 September, 12:07 Israel time

Mossad Director Roman Gofman travelled with Netanyahu to the UAE on Sunday, according to Israel Hayom. The paper said the delegation also included Shmuel Ben Ezra, who heads the National Security Council and serves as national security adviser, a senior official from the Shin Bet's VIP Protection Unit, and senior members of the prime minister's own team. The report does not say whether any of them sat in on the meeting with Mohammed bin Zayed.

The Jerusalem Post, citing a source, reported that the talks with the Emirati president centred mainly on Iran. This is the first account of the meeting's substance. Earlier reports either gave no detail on what was discussed or, in Ynet's case, assumed the pre-October 7 warning had come up. The Post's source did not address that subject in the portion of the report available.

The Post's source also said the trip lasted six hours. That adds a third version of the timing. The Times of Israel, relaying Channel 12, reported a four-hour stay in Abu Dhabi, while Israel Hayom and Ynet described a morning departure and a day in the Emirates. It is not clear whether the Post's figure covers the whole journey including flights or only the time on the ground, and the accounts have not been reconciled.

Neither new report cites an official statement from the Prime Minister's Office or the Emirati government.

The story as first reported

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu travelled to the United Arab Emirates on Sunday without prior announcement and held a meeting with the country's president, Mohammed bin Zayed, according to several Israeli media outlets and Axios correspondent Barak Ravid. Ynet reported that Netanyahu flew to Abu Dhabi on a private plane and had already returned to Israel by the evening.

The trip took place against the backdrop of a recent Haaretz report that the Emirati leader had alerted Netanyahu, days before the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, that the group was preparing an assault. Haaretz, citing a source, described the visit as coming amid the fallout from that disclosure. Ravid wrote on X that the meeting came two weeks after the Haaretz revelation.

Who reported what

The first public word of the meeting came from Ravid, who attributed it to unnamed sources. Within minutes, Ynet's alerts channel, Israel Hayom, The Jerusalem Post and Haaretz carried the same basic account. The Jerusalem Post said a source had told it Netanyahu flew to the UAE to see bin Zayed. Israel Hayom, relaying a report by Israel's Channel 12, said two sources had confirmed the meeting and that the prime minister reached Abu Dhabi aboard a private jet.

Channel 12 is one of Israel's main commercial television news channels. Much of the detail about the trip's timing traces back to its reporting, as relayed by other outlets.

A disagreement over timing

The reports do not agree on how long Netanyahu was in the Emirates. According to Israel Hayom's account of the Channel 12 report, he left on Sunday morning and was in the UAE for the day. Ynet likewise said he took off in the morning.

A later update carried by The Times of Israel, also citing Channel 12, gave a narrower window: departure a little after midday, landing in Abu Dhabi at 3:10 p.m., and a stay of four hours. The sources available do not reconcile these accounts.

The warning before October 7

The context most outlets pointed to is the Haaretz exposé. According to Haaretz, bin Zayed told Netanyahu in the days before October 7, 2023 that Hamas, the Islamist group that rules Gaza, was planning an attack. That day's cross-border assault on southern Israel remains the defining trauma of recent Israeli history, and questions over what warnings reached the country's leadership beforehand are politically sensitive.

Ynet described the trip as following a storm over the Emirati warning and wrote that it can be assumed the subject came up between the two men. That is Ynet's assessment rather than a reported account of the conversation. Ynet also placed the visit in the context of growing closeness between Israel and the UAE, alongside the war with Iran.

Israel and the UAE

The United Arab Emirates is a federation of seven emirates on the Arabian Peninsula, with Abu Dhabi as its capital. Mohammed bin Zayed, widely known by his initials MBZ, is its president. Israeli leaders' contacts with Gulf Arab states have at times taken place away from public view, and this visit was not announced in advance by either government, according to the reports.

What the reports do not say

None of the reports cites an official statement from the Prime Minister's Office or from the Emirati government confirming the meeting. Every account rests on unnamed sources, either the outlets' own or those cited by Channel 12.

No outlet reported what the two leaders discussed, who else took part, or whether any agreement or announcement resulted. The link to the Haaretz report on the pre-October 7 warning is drawn by the outlets themselves; no participant is quoted confirming it was raised. The exact length of the stay remains unsettled between the competing accounts.