Following strengthening ties between the two nations, the United Arab Emirates and Israel have mutually agreed upon establishing a quarantine-free travel corridor for their nationals, in a move that would help foster travel for commercial, leisure and official reasons. The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs revealed the quarantine-free corridor will only be open to those individuals who have been vaccinated for Covid-19. The two countries intend to finalise the enforcement of the agreement in April 2021, with meetings between the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs ongoing, to negotiate the terms and conditions of the agreement.
“As the two countries leading the world’s fastest vaccination campaigns, the UAE and Israel expressed their shared commitment to ending the pandemic through widespread, effective vaccination and coordination between the countries,” read a statement. Meanwhile, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is all set to make his first official visit to the UAE today, following a previous agreement between the two countries to establish bilateral relations.
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Netanyahu’s trip comes two weeks before he contests for re-election, Israel’s fourth vote in less than two years. He will reportedly meet with the UAE’s leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan at Abu Dhabi’s airport, before eventually returning to Jerusalem for talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on the vaccination efforts against the novel coronavirus. The United Arab Emirates fixed ties with the Jewish state last September, becoming the first Arab country to sign on to the so-called Abraham Accords. The deal made the UAE only the third majority Arab state to establish ties with Israel, following Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994.
