Hezbollah's Wafiq Safa on sudden visit to UAE

Wafiq Safa, the head of Hezbollah's Liaison and Coordination Unit, arrived Tuesday in the United Arab Emirates on a sudden visit, following around 10 years of animosity and severed ties between the two sides.

Al-Akhbar newspaper quoted prominent political sources as saying that the visit is “exclusively related to the file of the (Shiite) detainees in the UAE.”

“This visit comes after a long course of negotiations that started around six months ago,” the sources said.

While Safa is supposed to return from the UAE today, the sources said there are reports that he might bring the released detainees with him.

“The communication channels were opened between the UAE and Hezbollah following a mediation by a regional country, knowing that Lebanese security officials had exerted efforts with their Syrian counterparts and with the Iraqi government so that they mediate with the UAE to wrap up this file,” al-Akhbar said.

According to media reports, a private Emirati plane carried Safa from Beirut’s airport, accompanied by two people.

An informed source meanwhile told al-Joumhouria newspaper that “Safa’s visit reflects major political openness between the UAE and Hezbollah that is expected to have very important results at the level of the relation between the UAE and Hezbollah and particular and between Hezbollah and the GCC countries in general.”

The crisis between the two sides had started with the eruption of the Yemen war and deepened with the UAE’s arrest of around 10 Lebanese Shiite who were working in the wealthy Gulf country.