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When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the United Arab Emirates last month, he was met with a standing ovation from his counterpart in Abu Dhabi.
That's because Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, the UAE's first female prime minister, gave a speech in which she called for women to play a larger role in peace efforts in the Middle East and beyond, the BBC reports.
"We must be at the center of everything that is happening in the region and in the world," she said.
"We must be involved in every decision-making process, in everything that is happening in the region and in the world."
The speech was part of a visit to Israel by the UAE's crown prince, Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, to mark the second anniversary of the Abraham Accords, an agreement between the UAE, Israel, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan to seek peace in the region, the New York Times reports.
The accords were signed by Netanyahu and the UAE's Abu Dhabi crown prince, Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, in August 2020.
Since then, UAE-Israeli relations have gone from zero to more than $2 billion in trade, per a Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and Security report cited by the Times.