It is easy to understand why the imminent opening of Israel’s full-time diplomatic-level mission at the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) headquarters in Abu Dhabi has grabbed widespread attention.

Equally easy to understand is the immediate statement issued by both governments that the Irena mission is exclusive of both countries’ diplomatic, or non-diplomatic, status.

Irena is an independent inter-governmental organisation and its key mandate is to promote widespread adoption of renewable energy for sustainable development. The UAE and Israel are among Irena’s 144 member countries, and this number is set to reach 175 with 31 countries currently in accession.

Israel voted for the establishment of Irena’s headquarters in Abu Dhabi back in 2009, and like all members, is entitled to assign a full-time diplomat in the UAE capital. Since then, it is understood Israeli delegations have intermittently visited Irena conferences and meetings in Abu Dhabi. It is, however, also understood, that the alleged involvement of Mossad in the assasination of Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai in 2010 put a stop to these unofficial trips. The confirmation of Israel’s foreign minister’s travel to Abu Dhabi last week to finalise details of the mission office confirms that the trips have resumed, with reports of visits back in 2014.

It is too premature, or as both countries would have us believe, irrelevant, to link the Irena mission to a potential thawing of relations between the two states.

The UAE has never hosted a full-time Israeli diplomat, although its neighbours Qatar and Oman had hosted – and shut down – Israeli trade offices in the 1990s through to the 2000s. The absence of diplomatic relations between Israel and the GCC states due to the decades-long Gaza Palestinian conflict means Israeli passport holders as well as any individual whose passport bears proof of having visited Israel cannot enter the GCC states.

The first and so far the only time in recent history that the UAE officially accepted an Israeli delegation was during the Washington-based IMF and World Bank meeting held in Dubai in September 2003.

It is not improbable, however, that the relationship between the two states may have been less tense that it has ever been especially in view of a common ideological enemy, Iran, whose pending integration back into the international community, has caused major discomfort for both countries in recent months.