Israeli president flies to UAE amid regional tensions

Israeli President Isaac Herzog and First Lady Michal Herzog are welcomed to Abu Dhabi by UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO/AP)

Israel’s figurehead president flew to the United Arab Emirates on Sunday in the first official visit by the country’s head of state, the latest sign of deepening ties between the two nations as tensions rise in the region.

The UAE and Israel normalized relations in the autumn of 2020, part of a series of US-brokered diplomatic deals between Israel and Arab states that had long avoided formal relations with Israel over its decades-old conflict with the Palestinians.