JERUSALEM (ISRAEL) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that the country is gearing up to have direct flights to the UAE over Saudi Arabia as part of the deal normalising ties between both countries.
The deal was announced on Thursday and the UAE will become the third Arab country to normalise relations with Israel in 70 years.
“We are currently working on enabling direct flights, over Saudi Arabia, between Tel Aviv and Dubai and Abu Dhabi,” Netanyahu said, adding that the time would be “about three hours, just like to Rome”.
Though Saudi Arabia does not have ties with Israel, as a sign of thawing relations between both countries, Riyadh allowed Air India to fly over Saudi airspace on its New Delhi-Tel Aviv route.
Addressing the media at Ben-Gurion airport, Netanyahu said there was “tremendous scope for bilateral tourism and gigantic scope for investment” with the UAE.
An Israeli delegation is expected to fly to the UAE to iron out modalities of normalised relations.
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field