Crown Prince of Bahrain Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa will be taking part in the historic signing ceremony to normalize relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates on Sept. 15, and plans to announce that Bahrain will also normalize ties with Israel, US administration officials confirmed on Friday.
According to US media reports, US President Donald Trump is scheduled to make a formal statement about the diplomatic development later on Friday.
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The deal marked a "new era of peace," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday.
"For many long years, we invested in peace, and now peace will invest in us, will bring about truly major investments in Israel's economy - and that is very important," Netanyahu said in a video statement.
The king of Bahrain reiterated the necessity of reaching a fair and lasting peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, based on the two-state solution, in a call with US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Bahrain's state news agency BNA reported.
Earlier, Trump told White House correspondents that "another country" could join the Israel-UAE deal.
"Next week at the White House we'll be having a signing between the UAE and Israel, and we could have another country added into that. And I will tell you that countries are lining up that want to go into it," Trump told a White House news conference.
Trump did not disclose the name of the country that might be the next to join, but predicted that Saudi Arabia would eventually do so.
"You'll be hearing other countries coming in over a relatively short period of time. And you could have peace in the Middle East," he said.
"I think what ultimately will happen is you're going to have quite a few countries come in. The big ones are going to be coming in. I spoke to the king of Saudi Arabia, so we're talking. We just started the dialogue. And you'll have them come in," he said.
Bahrain recognized Israel's right to exist in May 2019. In June 2019, Bahrain hosted an Israeli-Palestinian "economic peace conference," and invitations were extended to six Israeli media outlets. In July 2019, Bahraini Foreign Minister Khalid Ahmed Al Khalifa and Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz met in the US.
While US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was visiting Bahrain in late August, a State Department official said Washington would help Israel and Bahrain reach normalization "if needed."
"If we can help facilitate normalization with Bahrain we're ready," the official said.
Bahrain's normalizing relations with Israel affirms that a fair and lasting peace is the best way to guarantee Palestinian rights, Nabeel Al-Hamer, media adviser to the king of Bahrain, said on Friday.
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