Netanyahu secretly visited UAE during war with Iran

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secretly visited the United Arab Emirates and met its president during the war with Iran, his office has confirmed.

The meeting with the UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed resulted in a "historic breakthrough" in relations between Israel and the UAE, according to a statement released by Netanyahu's office.

On Tuesday, the US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said Israeli Iron Dome air defence batteries had been sent to the UAE during the war.

Iran hit several targets in the Emirates during the conflict, and Tehran has repeatedly criticised the country for what it sees as closer ties the the US and Israel.

On Wednesday Emirati presidential adviser Anwar Gargash said the UAE remained committed to political solutions and diplomacy but said his country had a right to defend itself.

Reuters quoted a source as saying the meeting between Netanyahu and the Emirati president took place in Al-Ain, an oasis city near the border with Oman, and lasted several hours.

The Iron Dome is an advanced Israeli air defence system used to intercept and destroy a range of aerial missiles, rockets and drones.

Huckabee said the Iron Dome deployment was the result of an "extraordinary relationship between the UAE and Israel" based on the Abraham Accords - a set of agreements that established normalised relations between Israel and several Arab countries during President Trump's first term.

Israel and the US's war with Iran appears to have deepened those relations - and developed the alliance militarily too.

During the war, Iran launched a series of missiles and drones on the UAE. On 10 May the UAE's Ministry of Defence said that air defence systems had engaged two drones launched from Iran and that the country had engaged a total of 551 ballistic missiles, 29 cruise missiles, and 2,265 since the war broke out in late February, when the US and Israel attacked Iran.

On Monday the Wall Street Journal on Monday reported that the UAE had also carried out strikes on Iran, which it had not yet publicly acknowledged, including an attack on a refinery on Iran's Lavan Island in early April.

In his post, Gargash said that the UAE had not sought the war and had worked to avoid it, saying that "Arab-Iranian relations in the Gulf cannot be built on confrontations and conflicts".

A ceasefire has been in place between the US and Iran for about a month.

However Iran has continued to block the Strait of Hormuz, prompting a rise in world oil prices. Normally about 20% of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas passes through the strait. The US for its part has been enforcing a blockade of Iranian ports to exert pressure on Tehran to agree to its terms.