Israel's foreign minister made a landmark trip to Bahrain on Thursday, the first high-level visit to the small Gulf state by a senior Israeli official since the signing last year of an agreement to establish diplomatic ties.
Yair Lapid landed in Bahrain's capital, Manama, for meetings with his Bahraini counterpart and to inaugurate Israel's embassy. It was the first official visit by an Israeli Cabinet member. After Lapid landed, Bahrain carrier Gulf Air launched its first direct flight between Manama and Tel Aviv.
The Israeli diplomatic delegation was to meet with its Bahraini counterparts and sign a raft of agreements to further cement bilateral ties, including economic deals and cooperation between hospitals and water companies.
"We see Bahrain as an important partner, both in the bilateral level but also as a bridge to cooperation with other countries in the region,” said Lior Haiat, spokesman for the Foreign Ministry.
The officials hailed the Abraham Accords, which have led to the opening of embassies, the launch of direct flights and a raft of agreements to boost economic ties. They expressed hope that the new relationships would be deepened and that other nations would follow suit.
“This Abraham Accords club is open to new members," Lapid said, before announcing that he plans to visit Bahrain by the end of the month.
He visited the UAE in June and Morocco in August. The Biden administration has welcomed the accords brokered by former U.S. President Donald Trump's administration and has pledged to build on them.
Blinken, who hosted the videoconference, said, “We all must build on these relationships and growing normalization to make tangible improvements in the lives of Palestinians and to make progress toward the longstanding goal of advancing a negotiated peace between Israelis and Palestinians.”
Morocco's Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita called the accords a “historic event that is worth commemorating,” but said that relaunching the peace process with the Palestinians is "fundamental.” Bahrain's Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Alzayani said more should be done to showcase the benefits of cooperation.
“We need to demonstrate what genuine regional peace, interdependence and prosperity can mean in practice for the day-to-day lives of all the peoples of the Middle East,” he said. However, anger simmers in some quarters over the move, which broke with decades of Arab consensus that there would be no relations with Israel while the Palestinian question remains unresolved.
The Palestinians viewed the agreements as a betrayal of their national cause because they further eroded a longstanding Arab consensus that recognition of Israel should be conditioned on progress toward the creation of a Palestinian state.
Protesters burned tires on the outskirts of Manama early Thursday, sending clouds of black smoke into the air, and the hashtag #BahrainRejectsZionists in Arabic was circulating on social media.
