Bahrain Delegation in Israel for Talks on Boosting Ties
A 40-strong Bahraini delegation arrived in Israel Tuesday for two days of talks on boosting economic cooperation and tourism after the two countries normalized relations in September.
The Gulf state of Bahrain followed the United Arab Emirates in signing up to a U.S.-brokered deal to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel, becoming the third and fourth Arab countries to do so.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi had been due to visit Bahrain this week but the trip was cancelled, diplomatic sources told AFP without elaborating.
The cancellation followed the assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist blamed on the Israeli spy agency, the Mossad.
Last month, Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdellatif al-Zayani held Jerusalem talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benajamin Netanyahu and outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pormpeo, who was on a farewell visit.
The latest delegation, led by Industry, Trade and Tourism Minister Zayed bin Rashid Al-Zayani, landed at Ben Gurion airport on Tuesday, Israeli diplomatic sources confirmed.
The delegation is scheduled to meet both Ashkenazi and Netanyahu on Wednesday.
Israeli authorities did not indicate whether the delegation would visit the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, Islam's third holiest site, located in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.
Many Palestinians are hostile to Arab governments normalizing their relations with Israel without a comprehensive peace deal and oppose such visits.
The Waqf, which manages Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem's Old City, cannot bar any Muslim from visiting them.
01 December 2020, 17:57
22
"Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi had been due to visit Bahrain this week but the trip was cancelled, diplomatic sources told AFP without elaborating."
The real reason for the cancellation is that Bibi Netanyahu is not willing to have any of his ministers visiting either UAE or Bahrain before he does.
01 December 2020, 17:58
22
s.o.s. - Who exactly decides who is a heretic?
al Aqsa can be visited by any Moslem who so wishes from wherever he comes.
04 December 2020, 23:35
00
We, the Israelites (Karaites, Rabbanites and Samaritans) are the aboriginal people of 'Palestine'. Arab-Palestinians are the local equivalent of Hispanics of Latin America. Stop being as racist bigot. Being an Israelite is an ethnicity that happens to have its own religion (the original covenant).
01 December 2020, 18:56
21
Lies.
Israel came into existance because on 29th November 1947 the United Nations General Assembly voted by 33 votes against 13 to establish two independent states in the British controlled mandated area called Palestine.
The Jews accepted this vote and established the State of Israel, the Arabs refused to accept it, and so even today 73 years later there is still no independent Arab state in the territory.
Also remember, Jordan occupied the West Bank, and Egypt occupied Gaza, from 1948 to 1967, but neither of them thought about giving the local populations an independent state. Perhaps you know why?
01 December 2020, 19:03
21
"Israel came into existence by ethnic cleansing of the indigenous population in the 20th century."
Is that why 20% of the population of Israel is Moslem, is that why there are senior officers in the army and police, is that why there are senior medical staff in nearly every hospital in the country, not to mention the Moslem, Christian and Druze members of the Israeli parliament and the judicial system.
Also for you sports fans, half of the Israel national football team, including the captain, are non-Jewish.
And still you have the audacity to call this "ethnic clensing".
02 December 2020, 06:13
00
Israelis salivating at the thought of ripping off the Arabs. $$$$$$$$$ Some things don't change...
