Israel’s FM Lapid arrives in Bahrain on first official visit

Manama, Sep 30 (EFE).- Israel’s foreign minister Yair Lapid arrived in Bahrain on Thursday for the first-ever official trip by a member of the Israeli government to the Gulf nation since the two countries normalized ties.

Lapid is expected to inaugurate the Israeli embassy in Manama, meet his Bahraini opposite number, Abdullatif bin Rashid al-Zayani, and sign a number of bilateral economic and technological agreements with the kingdom.

“We landed in Bahrain. Proud to represent Israel on its first official and historic visit to the Kingdom. Thanks for the warm welcome,” he wrote on Twitter.

The visit of Israel’s top diplomat comes two weeks after Khaled Yousif al-Jalahma was appointed head of the Bahraini diplomatic mission to Israel.

In September 2020, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates became the first Gulf states to normalize relations with Israel, setting aside a years-old Arab League consensus of not establishing diplomatic ties with Israel because of the Palestinian conflict.

Sudan and Morocco later followed in the footsteps of the UAE and Bahrain in signing the US-brokered Abraham Accords.

Egypt and Jordan had been the only Arab countries that maintained diplomatic ties with Israel after signing peace deals in 1979 and 1994, respectively. EFE

bar-ppa/smq/ks