The UAE-Israeli rapprochement was not born with the Abraham Accords in 2020, nor was it the result of sudden regional shifts as Abu Dhabi later attempted to frame it. Rather, it emerged from a long and carefully constructed process carried out in the shadows, far from public scrutiny, by controversial figures, foremost among them the late American billionaire Jeffrey Epstein.
According to newly leaked documents and correspondence, Epstein served as an unofficial broker and a secret communication channel between Emirati elites and Israel’s political and security establishment more than a decade before the public announcement of normalisation.
These leaks expose a complex web of relationships built by Epstein, grounded in economic interests, security mediation, and intimate personal ties. He leveraged his position as a powerful financier, possessing compromising information about many influential figures.
Most alarming is that these documents show how Abu Dhabi voluntarily became a testing ground for politically prohibited relationships, passed through the gateways of money, technology, and security.
A Shadow Alliance: Epstein and Sultan bin Sulayem
Correspondence dating back to 2006 highlights the depth of the relationship between Epstein and Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, chairman of DP World. This was not a fleeting advisory connection, but a close personal partnership.
In a message dated March 2007, Epstein wrote to bin Sulayem following a shared trip, saying: “I am happy that you are my friend… you are the only person I have met who is as crazy as I am”, a blunt expression of the level of intimacy and trust between them.
This closeness allowed Epstein to penetrate the heart of financial decision-making in Dubai, from reviewing drafts of official documents to advising on DP World’s initial public offering in global markets. He also acted as an undeclared adviser, shaping the image of the Emirati elite in Washington and Tel Aviv.
More troubling is that this relationship endured during Epstein’s darkest legal periods. Contact reportedly continued shortly before his imprisonment in 2008 and after his release in 2009 on charges related to the exploitation of minors.
Records show that Epstein boasted of his relationship with bin Sulayem and claimed he was effectively in charge of the Port of Djibouti, then one of DP World’s largest assets in Africa, at a time when the region was described as a hub for smuggling and security rivalries.
Suspicions have also surfaced around opaque real estate investments, including the registration of the purchase of Great Saint James island, adjacent to Epstein’s island, in bin Sulayem’s name in 2016. This episode raises serious questions about the nature of their shared financial dealings.
The Israeli Gateway: Ehud Barak and Cyber Technology
Epstein’s most dangerous role lay in directly linking bin Sulayem with former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak. In a 2013 message, Epstein urged Barak to meet bin Sulayem, writing: “I think you should meet… he is the right hand of the Al Maktoum family”.
Multiple meetings reportedly followed, during which potential investments by DP World in Israeli port infrastructure were discussed, years before any public political cover for such engagement existed.
The relationship did not stop at ports. Epstein was a principal financier of Carbyne, the cybersecurity company chaired by Barak. Correspondence reveals that the company was established following trilateral meetings involving Epstein, Barak, and bin Sulayem.
Later, Abu Dhabi entered this technological space, with official interest emerging in deploying such systems within emergency response frameworks and port security operations in Dubai.
This covert trajectory illustrates how security and technological cooperation preceded political normalisation by years, enabling Israeli penetration of Emirati infrastructure under the banners of innovation and security.
Epstein’s Legacy: Normalisation as a System of Leverage
The most disturbing aspect of the documents is Epstein’s self-portrayal as a man holding damaging information about his partners, reinforcing the theory that he operated an international blackmail network. Photographs linking him with Emirati leaders and elites, alongside messages suggesting he possessed sensitive secrets, place Abu Dhabi in the position of an accomplice rather than a victim.
Today, with secret cooperation transformed into an open partnership and hundreds of millions of Emirati dollars flowing into Israel’s defence and technology sectors, Epstein’s legacy appears foundational. He paved the way, defined the channels, and entrenched a logic in which money and security precede politics and ethics.
Despite Abu Dhabi’s efforts to present itself as a pragmatic actor, this story reveals that normalisation was not a transparent sovereign choice. It was the product of murky relationships engineered by a man accused of child trafficking and international blackmail. In this picture, the UAE appears not as an equal partner, but as an appendage to a project whose contours were drawn in Tel Aviv’s shadows, with Jeffrey Epstein as one of its principal architects.
