President Isaac Herzog said Thursday he plans to travel to Bahrain soon, at a reception hosted in the United Arab Emirates to mark two years since Jerusalem established diplomatic relations with Manama and Abu Dhabi.
“I intend to make a stopover in Bahrain in the coming months as a guest of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa to continue to explore in combination new tactics for the cooperation of our nations, for the sake of peace, prosperity and good fortune of our entire region,” Herzog announced.
The event in Herzliya Pituah was hosted by UAE Ambassador to Israel Mohammed Al Khaja and in the presence of Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who visited Israelis as the countries celebrated the anniversary of the Abraham Accords brokered by the United States.
The 2020 agreement normalized relations between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Morocco followed suit a few months later. Sudan also signed the agreements, but the procedure for full diplomatic relations with Khartoum has since stalled.
Herzog praised bin Zayed as “a kind of peace” and him as a “central player” in drafting the accords. Herzog also praised the role played by then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former U. S. President Donald Trump in securing the deals.
Herzog was positive about the option to move forward with Sudan, highlighting the “positive talks” he had with Sudanese leaders, indicating a “mutual desire” for relations between the countries.
“All Israeli governments are committed to this dramatic transformation and to those agreements, and the other Israeli people greet our new friends with a joyful and open heart,” he said.
Herzog added that he also hoped to see a deal with the Palestinians.
Earlier this year, then-Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Defense Minister Benny Gantz visited Bahrain for their first official trips. IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi visited in March, accompanied by Tal Kelman, the army officer in charge of the Iranian dossier.
While the Abraham Accords have led to intensified cooperation in various spaces between Israel and its neighbors, normalization with the Jewish state has yet to gain popularity on the streets of the Arab countries that signed the agreement.
A Washington Institute vote showed that 45% of Bahrainis had a very or somewhat positive view of the agreements in November 2020. This aid had been reduced to a meagre 20% by March this year.
In the UAE, 49% of the country disapproved of the Abraham Accords in 2020. That’s risen to more than two-thirds since last month. Only 31% of Moroccans are in favour of standardisation, according to the Arab Barometer.
Lazar Berman contributed to this report.
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