The talks in Abu Dhabi, the first between the leaders of Israel and the United Arab Emirates since the two countries established diplomatic relations last year, have given Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan, their first chance to coordinate personally over their shared regional rival, Iran, and its expanding nuclear program.

It was also an opportunity for the two leaders to discuss the nascent trade relations between their countries, which normalized relations late last year after 50 years of lack of formal diplomatic relations. The deal led to deals with several other Arab countries called the Abrahamic Accords, and billions of dollars in new business.

On Monday, Mr. Bennett and Sheikh Mohammed spent more than four hours in interviews, both with larger delegations and in a two-and-a-half-hour one-on-one meeting at the Prince’s Palace.

A joint statement called Bennett’s visit “another step in developing warm relations and close partnership between the two countries” and said a variety of economic and civic issues had been discussed.

Mr. Bennett invited Sheikh Mohammed to visit Israel and he agreed, according to the Israeli leader’s office. They also discussed a free trade agreement next year, the office said.

The two countries have already increased year-on-year bilateral trade ten-fold in the first 10 months of 2021, to reach $ 874.5 million. This sum does not reflect some of the biggest deals between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, including the sale for $ 1 billion by the Israeli company Delek Drilling of a stake in its Tamar gas field to the UAE investment fund. Mubadala.

Monday’s meeting comes after Sheikh Mohammed visited Turkey late last month to begin deepening relations with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a supporter of Islamist political movements whom the UAE sees as a threat to national security.

Separately, Qatar is negotiating talks between Saudi Arabia and Turkey for a once-unimaginable meeting between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Mr. Erdogan, people familiar with the efforts have said, pointing to a potential detente in a rift that has divided the region for years. Qatari officials tried unsuccessfully to reunite the two in Doha last week, as they both passed within a day of each other, and officials are looking for an appropriate time and place in the coming weeks, people said.

Middle East diplomats say they are speaking to rivals they have avoided for years amid uncertainty over the Biden administration’s engagement in the region after its brutal withdrawal from Afghanistan and its foreign policy pivot towards China. After an alleged Iranian drone attack on two Saudi oil facilities in 2019 that went largely unanswered and a reduced US role in Iraq, regional officials are seeing Washington’s appetite for involvement in the region diminish.

“There is a question of what the American policy is in the Middle East and the perceived image is that they want to get the hell out of here, and they are saying so,” said Yoel Guzansky, senior research scientist in the area. Persian. Gulf Policy and Security at the Tel Aviv Institute for National Security Studies.

Gulf officials and Israelis watched with unease as the United States, Russia, China and the European Union held talks in Vienna with Iran to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, which lifted sanctions on the ‘Iran in exchange for limits on its nuclear program. There has been little progress in two weeks, and Middle East officials fear the negotiations will collapse and precipitate a regional crisis with Tehran.

“All the players – Israel, the United Arab Emirates – everyone is fighting for a job,” said Joshua Teitelbaum, professor of Middle Eastern studies at Bar Ilan University outside Tel Aviv. “There is a new administration with a policy that we are still guessing about. And Iran is about to acquire a nuclear weapon, it forces everyone to reconnect.”

With the resumption of dialogue across the Middle East, Israel remains at a disadvantage. Despite Abraham’s accords, he has few and mostly unofficial contacts in the rest of the Persian Gulf, which makes him more dependent on the United Arab Emirates. Israel has no formal relationship with Saudi Arabia, despite a secret meeting in the desert last year between Prince Mohammed and the then prime minister. Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Emiratis see a partnership with Israel, which has increasingly advocated for its right to strike Iranian nuclear targets, as a way to bolster their security credentials potentially with advanced Israeli weapons, observers said. But the Emiratis are also concerned that any uncoordinated military action could spark a larger conflict.

“What the Gulf states are trying to do differently in this new phase is deepen their relations with controversial powers and try to undermine Iran,” said Sanam Vakil, deputy director of the Middle East program. North Africa at Chatham House.

The renewed dialogue also gives new impetus to the liquidation of the conflicts that erupted after the uprisings of the Arab Spring. Saudi Arabia is reducing its military footprint in Yemen, as the kingdom has all but lost the war against Houthi rebels aligned with Iran.

Some Arab states have started pushing for the idea of ​​recognizing the legitimacy of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in hopes of ending nearly a decade of brutal fighting. The UAE’s foreign minister met with Assad last month in Damascus, and Syria could attend the Arab League summit in Algeria in March for the first time since its membership was suspended in 2011.

At the same time, the Saudis have held several rounds of negotiations this year with Iran, mediated by Iraq, aimed at restoring diplomatic relations for the first time in six years. Sheikh Mohammed’s brother, UAE National Security Advisor Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, visited Tehran this month where he met Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and invited him to visit. travel to United Arab Emirates.

The hope of the various dialogues, analysts say, is not to mend relations with a rival but to reestablish the channels of communication in the event that nuclear talks fail.

For Mr. Erdogan and Prince Mohammed, a meeting offers an opportunity to put aside the problems that have plagued relations between Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Among them: the murder of the writer Jamal Khashoggi by a team of Saudi government agents at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. Prince Mohammed wants to promise that Mr. Erdogan will never again mention Mr. Khashoggi’s death and persuade the Turkish media to stop hitting on the subject, according to Saudi and Qatari officials.

For Erdogan, the math may be more about money than geopolitics. As Turkey is in the throes of a currency crisis, it is looking for economic lifelines.