They will be joined by US officials, as Israeli officials were in the first visit to Abu Dhabi after normalization.
By LAHAV HARKOVThe flags of the U.S., United Arab Emirates, Israel and Bahrain flutter along a road in Netanya(photo credit: NIR ELIAS / REUTERS)
An Israeli government delegation is expected to go to Bahrain on Sunday, the first such visit since the countries announced they were making peace and normalizing ties last month. They will be joined by US officials, as Israeli officials were in the first visit to Abu Dhabi after normalization with the United Arab Emirates.Israel and Bahrain announced normalization on September 11, 2020, less than a month after the UAE announcement, and signed a declaration of peace on the White House lawn several days later.Bahrain has long been relatively open to Israel compared to other countries in the region. It stopped boycotting Israel in 2005, and allowed its citizens to visit Israel in 2017.In 2019, Bahrain hosted a US-backed economic workshop meant to benefit the Palestinians, whose officials boycotted the event. Six Israeli journalists were invited to report on the workshop.In the following months, then-foreign minister Israel Katz met with his Bahraini counterpart Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa, a Foreign Ministry official attended a conference on maritime and civil aviation security in Manama, and Jerusalem Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar met Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa at an interfaith event in the Gulf state.
