Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz visited the Persian Gulf city of Abu Dhabi this week, taking part in a UN climate conference and discussing "the Iranian threat" with an Emirati official, the ministry revealed Monday.
While in the United Arab Emirates, Katz met with a senior UAE official and UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
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Israel and the UAE do not have formal diplomatic relations, but the two have developed increasingly close ties over shared concerns about Iran.
Katz says in a statement he was representing "the interests of the State of Israel before the Gulf Arab states."
Visits by senior Israeli officials to Gulf states are rare, but growing in frequency. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Oman last year, but Katz's visit was the first to the Gulf since last week's Mideast peace conference in Bahrain.
The Foreign Ministry said that Katz's meeting with the senior UAE official focused on "regional issues and relations between the countries," and also addressed "the need to deal with the Iranian threat related to the nuclear issue, missile development, Iran's support for terrorism in the region and the violence employed by Iran against the interests of the region."
The visit came as the International Atomic Energy Agency announced on Monday that Iran exceeded the uranium enrichment limit under the 2015 nuclear deal.
