DUBAI (Dispatches) – The United Arab Emirates is pressing on with plans to further ties with the Zionist regime, but with much less fanfare since last month’s bloodshed in Gaza and the occupying regime’s provocations around al-Quds’ al-Aqsa mosque.
The formal opening of the UAE embassy in Tel Aviv, the inking of a bilateral tax treaty and a plan to open an Israeli economic attaché office in Abu Dhabi were this week reported in the occupied territories.
But those events were not announced by UAE authorities or covered by the tightly-controlled local media.
The UAE had touted the ‘budding’ relationship, with every memorandum of understanding, virtual conference and deal receiving wide coverage since it and Bahrain signed U.S.-brokered pacts to forge ties with the occupying regime in September.
But analysts say the bloodiest Zionist aggression against Palestinians in years have shifted the spotlight away from the comfort zone of economic benefits, as well as offering global investors a brutal reminder of the ethical choices they make in exchange for parking money in the Israeli-occupied territories.
Asked by reporters at a UAE-Israel investment conference, the Zionist regime’s envoy to the UAE Eitan Na’eh said on Wednesday that “publicity will come when it’s suitable”, while the UAE foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on this week’s muted coverage.