By Staff, Agencies

“Israeli” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday evening said he welcomed the “Israeli” entity’s warming ties to Arab countries in the region, after the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates tweeted a link to a news report on the subject.

“I welcome the closer relations between ‘Israel’ and many Arab states. The time has come for normalization and peace,” Netanyahu tweeted.

Earlier, the UAE’s Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan tweeted a link to a story in the UK’s Spectator, titled: “Islam’s reformation: an Arab-‘Israeli’ alliance is taking shape in the Middle East.”

The story covered the changing geopolitical landscape in the Middle East, and the realization of many Arab figures that “Israel” could be an important ally against Iran’s expansionism in the region, as well as a potential partner for trade and security.

Tel Aviv is said to have developed clandestine ties with numerous Arab countries in recent years over the cosuntries’ shared antipathy toward Iran.

“Israeli” officials have openly visited several such countries recently. In October 2018, Netanyahu was welcomed to Oman by the country’s longtime ruler Sultan Qaboos bin Said. That same month the entity’s so-called Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev traveled to Abu Dhabi for the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam judo tournament, where the entity’s so-called national anthem was played for the first time in the Arabian peninsula following “Israeli” judoka Sagi Muki’s gold win in the under-81 kilogram category.

The “Israeli” entity has also been invited to participate at the Expo 2020 in the UAE city of Dubai.

Arab leaders, however, have also indicated that true normalization cannot take place so long as the “Israeli”-Palestinian conflict is not resolved.