Posted on 09/30/21
| News Source: i24
First official ministerial visit to Gulf state since diplomatic ties established last year
Israeli Foreign Minister and Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid departed for Bahrain on Thursday morning for the first official ministerial visit to the Gulf state since diplomatic relations were established last year.
Lapid met with his Bahraini counterpart, Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani, after arriving in the capital Manama, with the pair scheduled to jointly inaugurate Israel's first embassy in Bahrain and sign a series of bilateral agreements.
The two countries normalized relations last year as part of the Abraham Accords that also included the United Arab Emirates, with the later additions of Morocco and Sudan.
Joining Lapid on the one-day visit is Foreign Ministry Director-General Alon Ushpiz and Deputy Director-General for Middle Eastern Affairs and the Peace Process Oded Joseph.
Earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with al-Zayani in New York ahead of his address to the UN General Assembly. Joining them was UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Khalifa al-Mara.
"We believe in this relationship and we are determined to extend it as much as possible," Bennett said during the trilateral meeting.
"I thought it was important that we meet on the first anniversary of the Abraham Accords," the Israeli leader said, "which from our point of view is very significant."