During rising regional tensions, Israel’s defense minister visited Bahrain and inked a historic security cooperation deal, the first of its kind between Israel and a Gulf nation.
As part of the Abraham Accords, which were mediated by the United States, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates agreed to normalize their relations with Israel in 2020. This was done in part because of shared worries about Iran.
Any future cooperation in intelligence, military to military, industrial collaboration, and more would be supported by the memorandum of understanding framework,” the Israeli Ministry of Defense stated on Thursday in a statement.
According to an Israeli official, this was Israel’s first arrangement with a new Gulf ally of this type.
It has only been a year since the Abraham Accords were signed, but we’ve already secured an important defense deal that will help to both nations’ and the region’s security, according to Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz.
According to the report, Gantz met with Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa in the royal palace and signed the paper. Later in the day, Gantz visited the headquarters of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet in Bahrain.
Fifth Fleet headquarters and some CENTCOM operations are in Bahrain; Israel joined CENTCOM last year, a US military coordinating umbrella organization for the region. Considering escalating marine and aerial threats, our ironclad collaboration is more necessary than ever, Gantz remarked on Twitter during the visit to the naval facility.
