Netanyahu Reaches Out to Bahrain In Bid to Step Up Cooperation

By Staff, Agencies

The Zionist entity’s former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu invited Bahrain’s Crown Prince and Prime Minister Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa to visit the occupied Palestinian territories soon, in a bid to further strengthen the already normalized relations with the Gulf country.

In a phone call on Sunday, the ‘Israeli’ regime’s presumptive incoming prime minister told the Bahraini crown prince that the two sides face “great opportunities” and that he expects the direct line of communication between them to continue.

According to The Times of ‘Israel,’ Netanyahu’s office reported that “the crown prince expressed Bahrain’s desire to broaden and deepen the relations and bring our collaboration to new heights.”

Following Netanyahu’s winning of elections while standing charges on corruption and political dysfunction, the diplomatic adviser to Bahrain’s king, Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, said on November 6 that “Bahrain has an agreement with ‘Israel,’ part of the Abraham Accords, and we will stick to our agreement and we expect it to continue in the same line and continue building our partnership together.”

In September 2020, Netanyahu signed normalization agreements with Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al Zayani during an official ceremony hosted by former US president Donald Trump at the White House. Sudan and Morocco followed suit later that year.

Rejecting the move, Bahrain’s main opposition group al-Wefaq and the kingdom’s top cleric Sheikh Isa Qassim have repeatedly condemned the normalization move made by the Al Khalifa dynasty and reiterated that the deal lacks legitimacy.

Demonstrations in Bahrain have been held on a regular basis ever since a popular uprising began in mid-February 2011. The participants demand that the Al Khalifa regime relinquish power and allow a just system representing all Bahrainis to be established.

However, demonstrations intensified since the announcement of rapprochement with the ‘Israeli’ occupation regime, where Bahrain witnessed mass popular protests to denounce and reject such normalization.

Meanwhile, Manama has gone to great lengths to clamp down on public outrage against normalization with the Zionist regime, which adds to its long list of human rights violations since the political repression rose in 2011.