Israel’s foreign minister meets with Bahraini counterpart in US

This week Yisrael Katz met with Bahrain’s Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa at a U.S. State Department event.

By JNS

Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz and Bahraini Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa met on Thursday in Washington, D.C.

“Yesterday I met publicly with the Foreign Minister of Bahrain @khalidalkhalifa at the [U.S. State Department’s] Ministerial on Religious Freedom Another example of our growing diplomatic connections I will continue to work with [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] to advance Israel’s relations with the Gulf countries,” tweeted Katz.

The “meeting was coordinated behind the scenes by the U.S. State Department as part of a conference on religious liberty organized in Washington by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo,” according to an Israeli Foreign Ministry statement, which added that the two ministers “addressed the subject of Iran and regional threats, as well as cooperation between states.”

Israel and Bahrain do not have formal diplomatic relations, though the two states recently improved ties.

In June, Al-Khalifa told Israel’s Channel 13 on the sidelines during the June 25-26 “Peace to Prosperity Workshop” in the Bahraini capital of Manama, which jump-started the Trump administration’s Mideast peace plan: “Israel is part of the heritage of this whole region, historically, so the Jewish people have a place amongst us.”

He added, “That’s why it’s so important and we didn’t want to miss this opportunity, and I want to tell them we should talk.”