Israel Attends Anti-Iran Summit in Bahrain
Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa discussed the summit, which Israel attended, with Reuters. (Flickr)
Dana Benvenisti-Gabay, the head of the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s regional security and counter-terrorism department, attended the Working Group on Maritime and Aviation Security in Bahrain on October 21. The summit focused on countering Iranian aggression in the region, according to the Times of Israel. The working group is part of the Warsaw Process, which was created earlier this year as a part of the Ministerial to Promote a Future of Peace and Security in the Middle East. This effort, led in part by the U.S., Poland, and Israel, aims to counter Iranian influence in the Middle East.
The attendance of this Israeli official shows that relations between Israel and the Arab states could continue to warm, due to their shared concerns about Iranian influence and actions in the region, according to the Times of Israel. Though Israel does not have official diplomatic relations with Bahrain, along with most other Arab states, unofficial ties between Israel and the Gulf states have increased in recent years. In June 2019, in an interview with the Times of Israel, Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa said that “Israel is a country in the region... and it’s there to stay, of course.”
Although the conference appears to be about countering Iran, “aviation and maritime security are at [the] top of the policy agenda in the region,” al-Khalifa told Reuters in a statement.
On the other hand, both Hamas and the Bahraini opposition criticized Israel’s participation. A Hamas spokesman said in a statement to Al Jazeera that this effort would “normalize relations with Israel for [sic] Israeli assaults on the Palestinian people and their holy sites.” Bahrain’s opposition expressed anger as well, claiming that this action does not represent the entirety of Bahrain, Al Bawaba reports.
Despite the summit’s high profile, it is unclear if it will lead to a further thaw in relations between Israel and the Arab states.