The UAE has decided to postpone the rollout of its visa-exemption policy with Israel, as Israel also imposed travel restrictions for Gulf travellers as part of its precaution against COVID-19.
In a report on Gulf Today, visa waivers were an important point on the September 15, 2020 deal formalising Israeli-UAE relations.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry, they were meant to have gone into effect by February 13 but Abu Dhabi only ratified the agreement last Wednesday.
The Israeli government said that the UAE has requested to suspend the visa waiver policy to July in order to curb the impact of COVID-19.
Citizens of the two countries can obtain visas through their airlines, as tens of thousands have done since the normalisation pact.
Israel has required all travellers from the UAE to under go mandatory quarantine in a military facility for at least 10-12 days.
Israel continues to struggle in dealing with the pandemic even if it has already launched a massive vaccination drive.
Recent data show that Israel has an average of 5,000 COVID-19 cases per day. (TDT)
