Emirati officials attended secret Hegseth–Netanyahu meeting

The secret meeting between US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, held on the night of Monday 19 October at an air base in southern Israel, was also attended by officials from the United Arab Emirates. The new details follow DIAR's earlier report on the US war secretary's unannounced trip to Israel.

Israel's Channel 13 said the presence of the Emirati delegation at the meeting had been kept hidden. The newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth also wrote on its website that foreign representatives who appeared to be from the UAE took part in the meeting, and that Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz and Shmuel Ben-Ezra, head of Israel's National Security Council, were also present. Israel had barred domestic media from publishing news of the meeting until Monday night.

Details of the meeting at Ovda base

According to the newspaper Maariv, the meeting was held at Ovda air base and lasted about two hours. Instead of the helicopter he usually uses to visit bases, Netanyahu flew south from Ben Gurion airport on his private plane. According to a person briefed on the talks, "several issues including Iran" were reviewed, and Maariv wrote that the talks centred on ongoing efforts to counter the Islamic Republic's nuclear programme and on options should the confrontation escalate. It is not clear whether any operational decision was taken.

The US Department of War and the Israeli prime minister's office made no comment on the meeting. After the trip, Hegseth wrote on X only about meeting US forces in the US Central Command (CENTCOM) area and called the mission "historic", without mentioning Israel or Netanyahu.

Why the Emirati presence matters

The presence of Emirati officials at a meeting held over the Islamic Republic is a sign of closer coordination between the Persian Gulf states and the United States and Israel against Tehran. It comes at a time when attacks by the Islamic Republic and its allies in the Strait of Hormuz and Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia continue, and when Netanyahu has said he has given all Israeli security bodies an agenda for toppling the Islamic Republic.

The meeting took place a day after Donald Trump backed Netanyahu, and about a week before Israel's parliamentary elections. At the same time, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was in Tehran on Monday, and Field Marshal Asim Munir, commander of Pakistan's army, arrived in Tehran on Tuesday 20 October.

Emirati officials, alongside the US war secretary and Israel's prime minister, discussed options for confronting the Islamic Republic.