Eitan Na'eh, Israel's former ambassador to Turkey, will be at the helm of an interim Israeli diplomatic mission in Abu Dhabi as the acting Israeli envoy to the United Arab Emirates, Kan 11 News reported Tuesday.
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According to the report, Na'eh will be taking over the temporary representation office while a full-fledged permanent mission is being established.
Reportedly set to depart in the coming days, he will be the first Israeli diplomat officially representing the Jewish state in the UAE.
As per the report, his tenure is to last for several months until a permanent envoy is named.
Na'eh served as the Israeli envoy to Turkey between 2016 and 2018, when Ankara expelled him over deadly clashes on Israel's border with Gaza sparked by the US decision to relocate its own embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
At the time, Israel quickly retaliated by expelling the Turkish consul-general in Jerusalem, and Ankara pulled its own envoy out of Israel as well in a significant deterioration of ties between the two countries.
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Israel and the UAE officially signed a US-brokered agreement to normalize their ties in mid-September 2020. The two countries agreed to establish their respective embassies on each other's soil in the coming months and moved to sign a visa-waiver agreement as they sought to reap the benefits of tourism and business travels.
i24NEWS contributed to this report.
