Netanyahu says he’ll sue Haaretz over report UAE leader warned him days before Oct. 7

Former strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer categorically rejected the notion that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a conversation with UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed prior to the October 7 massacre, characterizing such reports as "fiction." At the MEAD Conference in Washington, Dermer, a close confidant of Netanyahu and a key figure in Israel's ties with the US and Gulf states, stated he would have been aware of any such call.

"If there had been a conversation, I would have been part of it, because one of the tasks assigned to me was to expand the Abraham Accords and strengthen the partnership with the United Arab Emirates," he said. Dermer emphasized he was certain all discussions between Netanyahu and bin Zayed had been either briefed to him or directly participated in by him, dismissing the lack of a conversation as a non-issue.

"It is not even a question of the content of the conversation," he stated. "I don't believe there was a conversation at all. And certainly, that content was not discussed." Dermer was unsure of the story's origin, noting both Israel and the UAE had firmly denied it. "I think the Emiratis have made clear that it did not happen. We have made clear that it did not happen," he remarked. "So it is simply fiction—a made-up story."