DUBAI: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Abu Dhabi on Sunday and met with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported on Monday. Netanyahu's office said the Israeli prime minister visited at the invitation of Sheikh Mohamed and that the meeting focused on strengthening relations between the two countries and regional challenges. Three senior Israeli officials said the meeting lasted six hours and focused on Iran. WAM said the two sides discussed bilateral relations between the UAE and Israel and ways to strengthen and develop them. The visit comes after Israeli newspaper Haaretz this month reported that Sheikh Mohamed had warned Netanyahu a week and a half before October 7, 2023 that Hamas was planning a major operation against Israel. The warning was not passed to Israeli intelligence agencies or the military, Haaretz reported. Netanyahu, who has denied the report and threatened legal action against the newspaper, is facing a tough reelection campaign. Opposition leaders have accused the prime minister of bearing responsibility for security failures that preceded Hamas' October 7 attack. The UAE has declined to comment on the Haaretz report but has said that UAE and Israel have maintained "open and direct lines of communication" since establishing diplomatic relations in 2020. A UAE source previously told Reuters that the UAE discusses security matters with countries through the "relevant entities," but not "at the level of national leaders." The UAE and Israel established diplomatic relations in 2020 under the Abraham Accords. (With Reuters)