Bahrain calls for Mideast peace conference and a Palestinian State at Arab League Summit

Although in 2020, Israel signed a normalization agreement with the UAE and Bahrain, there is increasing concern even among Israel’s allies in the region over its ongoing war in Gaza.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

At the Arab League Summit, the king of Bahrain, the host country, called for a Mideast peace conference and the establishment of a Palestinian State.

Representatives of 22 countries are gathering in Bahrain for an Arab League Summit whose focus this year is heavily on the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.

King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa declared, “[We] call for an international conference for peace in the Middle East, in addition to supporting full recognition of the state of Palestine and accepting its membership in the United Nations.”

Although in 2020, Israel signed a normalization agreement with the UAE and Bahrain, there is increasing concern even among Israel’s allies in the region over its ongoing war in Gaza.

With the US as one of Israel’s few allies, Syrian representatives are planning to discuss putting increasing pressure on the United States to consider the plight of the Palestinians and push Israel towards a ceasefire.

According to Al-Ain news in the UAE, a Syrian regime official “stressed the need for the Arab Summit to send a strong and clear message to the American administration demanding the necessity and inevitability of working to stop the war on Gaza.”

He explained, “The Israeli ‘occupation’ now controls the Rafah crossing from the Palestinian side, and thus this threatens more murders and genocide and preventing the flow of aid to the people of Gaza.”

Shifting alliances are a cause for concern in the context of the summit, particularly since Hamas has the support not only of Iran, but also of Turkey and Qatar.

Just recently, talks began to improve relations between Iran and Egypt, perhaps in part prompted by Egypt’s growing frustration with Israel over its operation in Rafah, and threats that the war could jeopardize the long-standing peace treaty between the two countries.

Israel’s Arab allies may support pressure to stop the Gaza war and may question their alliances if it seems that Israel can’t fully defeat Hamas and as the conflict with Hezbollah drags on without resolution.

Recently, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia have been critical of Israel’s military operations in Rafah, and are also concerned about threats from Iran and Syria.