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Israel and Bahrain will sign an agreement on Sunday to establish full diplomatic relations in Manama, as an Israeli official in Manama announced on Sunday, which comes after they reached a US-brokered normalization agreement last month.
On Sunday morning, a plane carrying an Israeli delegation, led by the president of the National Security Council, Meir Bin Shabat, took off from Tel Aviv for Bahrain on a one-day flight.
Before the plane took off, the head of the Israeli delegation said: “We are in the process of holding talks to translate the peace agreement that was signed in the White House garden into practical plans and concrete agreements.”
In Manama, the Israeli official told reporters that a visiting Israeli delegation and Bahraini officials would sign a “joint declaration” to establish “full diplomatic relations.” The official added that once the document is signed during the ceremony scheduled for Sunday night, Israel and Bahrain will be able to open two embassies.
On September 15, Israel officially signed in Washington, under the auspices of US President Donald Trump, a normalization agreement with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which made these two Gulf states the first Arab party to give this step after Jordan in 1994 and Egypt in 1979.
US Secretary of the Treasury Stephen Mnuchin and Special Assistant for International Negotiations Affairs Avi Berkowitz joined the Israeli delegation on its trip to Bahrain after their plane landed in Tel Aviv.
The Israeli and Bahraini sides are expected to sign between six and eight memorandums of understanding, according to a statement from the Israeli government.
According to Shabbat, the visit will focus on “a set of topics such as finance and investment, trade and economy, tourism, aviation, communications, culture, science, technology, agriculture and others.” Furthermore, security cooperation will have a prominent place in bilateral relations.
Earlier this month, Israeli Mossad chief Yossi Cohen held talks with two senior security and intelligence officials in Bahrain, where he discussed “issues of common interest” as well as “prospects for cooperation between the two countries,” according to the Bahrain’s official news agency.
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