Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz, left, and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid talk astatine a furniture gathering astatine the Ministry of Foreign Affairs bureau successful Jerusalem connected Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP)

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz, left, and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid talk astatine a furniture gathering astatine the Ministry of Foreign Affairs bureau successful Jerusalem connected Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP) (ABIR SULTAN)

JERUSALEM – Israel's overseas curate headed to Bahrain connected Thursday, the archetypal high-level sojourn to the tiny Gulf authorities by a elder Israeli authoritative since the signing past twelvemonth of a landmark statement to found diplomatic ties.

Yair Lapid flew to Bahrain's capital, Manama, for meetings with his Bahraini counterpart and to inaugurate Israel's embassy. It volition beryllium the archetypal authoritative sojourn by an Israeli Cabinet member.

After Lapid lands, Bahrain bearer Gulf Air volition motorboat its archetypal nonstop formation betwixt Manama and Tel Aviv.

The Israeli diplomatic delegation was to conscionable with its Bahraini counterparts and motion a raft of agreements to further cement bilateral ties. The 2 countries had agelong enjoyed clandestine information ties implicit a shared distrust of determination rival Iran, but lone past twelvemonth took the narration public.

Israel established ceremonial diplomatic relations with 4 Arab states past twelvemonth arsenic portion of the U.S.-brokered “Abraham Accords.” Lapid has already visited the United Arab Emirates and Morocco and opened Israel’s diplomatic offices determination since helium became Israel's overseas curate successful June.

Ad

Bahrain’s archetypal ambassador to Israel arrived earlier this period and presented his credentials to Israel’s figurehead president connected the day of the signing of the accords.

The deals to found relations with Bahrain, Sudan, Morocco and the UAE were the archetypal bid accords betwixt Israel and Arab states successful decades, aft bid treaties with Egypt successful 1979 and Jordan successful 1995.

The deals enraged the Palestinians, who felt a betrayal of their nationalist cause. They saw it arsenic an abandonment of a longstanding committedness successful the Arab satellite not to normalize relations with Israel until determination was advancement successful resolving the decades-long struggle with the Palestinians.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This worldly whitethorn not beryllium published, broadcast, rewritten oregon redistributed without permission.