ABU DHABI (Dispatches) – The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has reportedly halted the purchase of advanced surface-to-air missile system from the occupying regime amid political turmoil facing embattled prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as anti-Palestinian remarks by two extremist Zionist ministers.
The Arabic-language Arabi21 online newspaper, citing a report by Israel’s Channel 12 television channel, said the UAE’s decision came in response to recent actions and statements by the occupying regime’s far-right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich.
The channel quoted Israeli sources as saying that the UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan has announced the freeze on the deal.
“As long as we do not receive assurances that Netanyahu is able to control his administration, we cannot undertake common projects,” Al Nahyan said.
Protests have been snowballing in the occupied territories over the past two months since Netanyahu’s controversial move to reform the judiciary.
Back on September 22 last year, Reuters cited two sources as saying that the Zionist regime had approved a UAE request and would supply the Persian Gulf state with Rafael-made SPYDER mobile interceptors.
A third source said the UAE had acquired Israeli technology capable of combating drone attacks like those that struck Abu Dhabi earlier that year.
It was not clear how many interceptors, which are fitted to vehicles and can defend against short to long-range threats, would be supplied, or if any had already been shipped.
Back in 2020, the UAE and Bahrain signed U.S.-brokered agreements with the Zionist regime to normalize their ties. Some other Arab states, namely Sudan and Morocco, followed suit soon afterward.
The normalization deals have sparked widespread condemnations from the Palestinians as well as nations and human rights advocates across the globe, especially within the Muslim world.
In another anti-Zionist move, Saudi Arabia has reportedly refused to issue entry visas to a Zionist delegation that had been invited to a UN-sponsored tourism event in the kingdom, practically dashing Tel Aviv’s hopes of warming relations with Riyadh anytime soon.
The UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) had invited the delegation from the town of Kfar Kama in the northern part of the occupied territories to partake in the two-day event in the northwestern Saudi city of al-’Ula, Bloomberg reported on Sunday.
The UNWTO had extended the invitation to the delegation consisting of Kfar Kama’s residents after the UN body included the name of the town on an exclusive list of tourist destinations.
Saudi authorities, however, issued visas to all 22 countries invited to the event, but declined to offer visas to the Zionist delegation.
“The Israeli delegation started to worry when they didn’t receive their visas at the beginning of the month,” Israeli daily The Jerusalem Post reported, covering the development.
The Zionist regime’s Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, sent a letter to the UNWTO, insisting that the delegation receive their visas, but the plea did not help the matter.