UAE suspends visa-free travel agreement with Israel amid rising COVID-19 cases

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has suspended its visa-free agreement with Israel till the 1st of July, due to the rising of COVID-19 cases.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry in a statement on Monday said: “The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs has informed that according to the signed visa waiver agreement and in light of the efforts made to limit the spread of coronavirus, the visa waiver agreement will be suspended until July 1.”

“Until the aforementioned date, Israeli citizens will be required to obtain an entry visa before traveling to the United Arab Emirates and UAE citizens will be required to obtain an entry visa in advance before traveling to Israel,” the statement added.

Israel and the UAE reached an agreement last year for the mutual exemption of visas for both countries’ citizens within the framework of their agreement to normalize relations.

Since then thousands of Israeli nationals have traveled to the UAE in the past few months.