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‘We’re changing the Middle East’: Netanyahu meets with UAE ambassador

The two discussed the potential in developing joint regional and bilateral projects in a broad range of fields.

By World Israel News Staff

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem with the first United Arab Emirates Ambassador to Israel, Mohammed Al Khaja.

Netanyahu told the ambassador that he was happy to see him and congratulated him on his arrival in Israel. “We’re changing the Middle East. We’re changing the world,” the Prime Minister said.

The two discussed the potential in developing joint regional and bilateral projects in a broad range of fields.

National Security Council head Meir Ben-Shabbat and additional senior officials also attended the meeting, which was warm and friendly.

The ambassador presented his credentials to President Reuven Rivlin on Monday.

During the ceremony the national anthems of both countries were played by the Band of the IDF. The ambassador reviewed an IDF honor guard, reduced in size because of the coronavirus restrictions, and signed the Beit HaNasi guest book. The president and the ambassador then delivered joint statements and held a working meeting.

The president said it was a very moving occasion for him as President of Israel, but also a special moment for him as the son of Prof. Yosef Yoel Rivlin, who dearly loved the Arabic language and the culture of the peoples of the region.

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He said, “My father’s life’s work was the translation of the Holy Koran in to Hebrew. My father’s house, not far from here in Jerusalem, was filled with Jewish, Muslim and Christian scholars, who learned from each other and imagined a future of partnership, mutual respect and peace between the sons and daughters of Abraham.

“In this home I learned that we, the people living here, were not doomed to live together, but destined to do so on this land, to build it, develop it and lead it to a time of peace and prosperity,“ the president said.