Israel and Bahrain have agreed to open diplomatic missions in each other's countries, hopefully before the end of the year, Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi said Wednesday.
Ashkenazi spoke at a joint press conference with Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid al-Zayani.
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Ashkenazi also said that starting Dec. 1, Bahraini citizens would be able to apply for tourist visas to Israel.
Hailing normalization, Ashkenazi said he would be traveling to Manama soon and that Israel and Bahrain would establish a platform for dialogue between their respective business communities, opening new opportunities for cooperation and investment.
Bahrain's first official government delegation landed in Israel on Wednesday on the first Gulf Air commercial flight to Tel Aviv, as the two countries look to broaden cooperation after establishing formal ties in September in a US-brokered accord.
Gulf Air flight GF972 – a reference to Israel's country telephone code – took off from Manama airport Wednesday morning heading to Tel Aviv and touched down at Ben-Gurion Airport around 10:30 am.
Al-Zayani, who is heading the delegation, was joined by a senior US delegation, headed by the outgoing administration's top peace negotiator, Avi Berkowitz.
Al-Zayani was scheduled to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during his visit to the Jewish state, along with President Reuven Rivlin.
An Israeli diplomat in Jerusalem and a senior White House official both told Israel Hayom that the Bahraini delegation would have come to Israel regardless of the US delegation's participation.
"After all we experienced in the past few months, this event perhaps seems like a given but that's not the case," the US official said. "This is the first commercial flight from Bahrain to Israel, with the foreign minister and official delegation on board. This is not something that should be taken for granted and it's important for the [US] administration to emphasize that. We've waited for this development for years."
Bahrain's state-owned BNA news agency said the visit would "affirm Bahrain's strong and permanent position in favor of supporting the peace process" and be focused on "the economic opportunities and bilateral accords with Israel."
Pompeo is reportedly planning to visit Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria – a move the previous US secretaries of state avoided.
According to diplomatic sources, a trilateral Pompeo-Netanyahu-Zayani meeting is also expected to take place.
After touching down in Tel Aviv On Wednesday, al-Zayani and his delegation – which includes various senior officials, including a deputy foreign minister, the head of Bahrain's civil aviation and some journalists – was greeted at the airport by Ashkenazi. The two men will hold a working meeting at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem and deliver statements to the press.
In the early afternoon, Rivlin was slated to host al-Zayani at his Jerusalem residence, where he will deliver remarks to the press.
The Bahraini foreign minister will then head to the Prime Minister's Office for a series of meetings, including a one-on-one meeting with Netanyahu and the tripartite meeting with Netanyahu and Pompeo. Ashkenazi will also attend the latter meeting.
Last week, Israel's normalization agreement with Bahrain was ratified by the Knesset in a 62-14 vote, with all votes against the agreement cast by members of the Joint Arab List. An Israeli delegation visited Bahrain in October.
Part of this article was first published by i24NEWS.
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