Mohamed Mahmoud Al Khaja Becomes First UAE Ambassador to Israel

By: Aryeh Savir

Mohamed Mahmoud Al Khaja will be the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) first ambassador to Israel, Abu Dhabi announced Monday.

Al Khaja was sworn in as the Emirati Ambassador to Israel before Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, and Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs.

The new ambassador “vowed to respect the UAE’s constitution and laws, work sincerely to prioritize the Emirates’ interests, and keep the State secrets while performing his diplomatic tasks,” the UAE’s WAM news agency reported.

Sheikh Mohammed wished Al Khaja success and called on him to “work sincerely to strengthen the friendship and cooperation relations with Israel, and to maintain the culture of peace, coexistence and tolerance between the two nations’ peoples and the peoples of the region.”

A number of ministers and senior officials from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and Presidential Affairs attended the event.

The UAE’s Embassy in the US stated that al Khaja “will be a great champion of the Abraham Accord — of people-to-people exchange, of trade and investment, of regional peace and stability.”

“I look forward to visiting him soon in his new post,” tweeted Hend Al Otaiba, Director of Strategic Communications at the UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Al Khaja served as Chief of Staff at Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and is a Member of the Board of Trustees at the Sorbonne in Abu Dhabi.

The Israeli embassy in Abu Dhabi officially opened on January 25 with the arrival of the Head of Mission Eitan Na’eh, Israel’s former envoy to Turkey.

The Emirati government approved a motion to open an embassy in Tel Aviv.

The UAE and Bahrain signed a historic peace agreement with Israel at the White House on September 15, the first agreement to be signed between Israel and an Arab country in 25 years.

The UAE was the first major Arab state to recognize Israel since the Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty was signed in October 1994.

Announced on August 13, the Abraham Accords is the first between a Gulf state and Israel and is expected to lead to similar agreements with other Arab countries, possibly Oman or Saudi Arabia.

Israel and Sudan announced the normalization of ties in October 2020. Morocco joined the Abraham Accords in December.

(TPS)