US-Israeli delegation to visit Bahrain to speed up normalisation - report

A joint US-Israeli delegation could visit Bahrain next week to get the process of normalising relations between Israel and Bahrain started, the Israel HaYom newspaper reports.

MENA

2 min read

The New Arab Staff

13 October, 2020

Bahrain and Israel normalised relations last month [Getty]

A US-Israeli delegation may visit Bahrain next week to speed up the process of normalisation of relations between Israel and Bahrain, the Israeli newspaper Israel HaYom reported.

Israel HaYom said that since the signing of the UAE-Bahrain-Israel normalisation deal - formally known as the Abraham Accords - at a White House ceremony last month there had been no progress towards normalising relations between Israel and Bahrain.

A joint Israel-US delegation previously visited the UAE in order to get the process of normalisation going and the UAE has signed a dizzying array of cooperation agreements with Israel since then, covering sectors from banking to the film industry.

Israel and the US want the same process of normalisation to take place with Bahrain, according to Israel HaYom.

The delegation is likely to be led by US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, because Trump’s son-in-law and advisor Jared Kushner, who has played a leading role in US Middle East policy, is busy with campaigning for the presidential elections.

The UAE announced that it would normalise ties with Israel in August, followed by Bahrain in September. The deals violated the 2002 Arab League Peace Initiative which offer Israel normalised relations only in return for withdrawal from the illegally occupied Gaza Strip and West Bank.

Palestinians have condemned the deals as a “betrayal”, pointing out that they reward Israel while allowing it to occupy the West Bank and East Jerusalem and besiege Gaza.

A recent Arab Opinion Index survey revealed widespread opposition to the normalisation deals across the Arab World.