Israeli Foreign Minister to open new Bahrain embassy on Thursday

Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid will travel to Bahrain on Thursday to inaugurate the new embassy in the capital, Manama, as ties with Gulf Arab states gain pace.

Lapid will meet with his Bahraini counterpart, Abdullatif Al Zayani, and sign bilateral agreements during his visit, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry. It will be his first visit to the country since Israel signed a normalisation agreement with the Gulf state more than a year ago, paving the way for diplomatic and trade ties.

ממריא לביקור ראשון רשמי של שר ישראלי בממלכת בחריין 🇮🇱🇧🇭 pic.twitter.com/KMjf9vHWKz

— יאיר לפיד – Yair Lapid🟠 (@yairlapid) September 30, 2021

Bahrain’s first ambassador to Israel, Khaled Yousif Al-Jalahma, took up his new post in Tel Aviv earlier this month. But since the agreement was signed, there’s been very little trade, according to figures from Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics.

Israel signed similar normalisation agreements with the UAE, Morocco, and Sudan, and agreed to establish embassies in both the UAE and Morocco.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with foreign ministers from Bahrain and the UAE on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly earlier this month, and said Israel was looking to normalise relations with other countries.