Dozens rally against Bahrain’s formalization of diplomatic ties with Israel

Dozens of people have taken to streets in Bahrain to express their outrage over signing of a joint communiqué between the Persian Gulf kingdom and Israel to formalize ties, after they reached a US-brokered normalization deal last month.

The protesters carried banners and held up placards late on Sunday in condemnation of the Manama regime’s move and to protest a visit by an Israeli and US delegation to the country on Sunday evening.

The Israeli delegation, led by Israeli National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat, flew on an El Al Israel Airlines charter flight from Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, to Bahrain and was accompanied by US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin.

In addition to the joint communiqué on establishing diplomatic ties, Israel and Bahrain signed several MoUs, including on economic cooperation, an unnamed Israeli official said.

Sunday’s meeting followed a September 15 ceremony at the White House when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed US-brokered normalization deals with the Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Bahrain's Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid al-Zayani.

The accord has drawn anger among Bahrainis at home and abroad.

Earlier this month, Israel’s Mossad spy agency chief Yossi Cohen held talks in Bahrain with top security and intelligence officials on “topics of mutual interest,” according to the state-run Bahrain News Agency.

Palestinians, who seek an independent state in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, with East al-Quds as its capital, view the normalization deals as betrayal of their cause.

ME