Washington: Israel and the United Arab Emirates will sign their historic deal normalizing relations at a White House ceremony on September 15, officials said Tuesday.
Senior delegations from the two countries will be led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Emirati foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the brother of Abu Dhabi's powerful crown prince.
The US officials, who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the ceremony would either be on the South Lawn, the Rose Garden or inside depending on the weather.
Late Tuesday, Netanyahu tweeted he 'was proud to leave for Washington next week at the invitation of President Trump and to participate in the historic ceremony at the White House' to sign the deal with the UAE.
The UAE's state-run WAM news agency acknowledged Sheikh Abdullah would lead the Emirati delegation to the signing. Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE's day-to-day ruler named in the joint announcement of the US-brokered deal, apparently will not attend.
Sheikh Mohammed has not travelled to the US since being named tangentially in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on President Donald Trump and Russian interference in America’s 2016 election. His inclusion stemmed from his mysterious role in a 2017 meeting between a Trump associate and a Russian middleman for Vladimir Putin in Seychelles.