MANAMA, Nov 24 (Reuters) – Bahrain has sought to defuse public anger over the conflict that has killed thousands of Palestinians since war broke out in Gaza, while Israel moves the Gulf state closer to Gaza. It continues to walk a political tightrope as it seeks to maintain its agreement with the United States. America.
For tiny Bahrain, home to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet, close US relations are a vital bulwark against Iran. Iran is a vast Shiite Muslim nation across the Gulf, and Manama’s government has long accused the country’s Shiite majority of inciting the country’s Shiite population against Bahrain’s Sunnis. Monarchy.
The normalization agreement with Israel that Bahrain signed in 2020 under President Donald Trump provides business benefits to Bahrain, unlike the one it provided to the United Arab Emirates, a regional commercial hub that signed it at the same time. brought little. But other strategic interests secured by Bahrain are too valuable to risk, sources and analysts said.
Six sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters that Bahrain was unable to move forward with Israel’s He said he has no intention of abandoning his relationship with the company.
Bahrain is trying to maintain relations with Israel while managing public opinion, one of the sources said.
Bahrain’s Government Communications Office did not respond to emailed questions about the status of relations with Israel.
“They cannot abandon normalization with Israel without jeopardizing this entire strategic framework,” said Christine Smith Diwan, a researcher at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.
He said the framework was designed not just to bring the country closer to the United States, but also to bring Bahrain closer to the wealthy UAE, which has long provided funding to the country, whose oil resources had been depleted long ago. It also aims to counter Saudi Arabia’s influence. Almost nothing.
“Bahrain’s adoption of the Abraham Accords is important not only for its relations with Israel, but also for its relations with other countries,” she said, using the language of the normalization agreements Israel signed with Bahrain and the UAE.
But Bahrain maintained the agreement, whether through Bahraini Crown Prince’s criticism of Israel at a security summit in Manama this month, reflecting deep disagreements over Israel’s violent military operations in Gaza. Balanced action is needed by Bahrain as it seeks to statement and the government allowing public protests on the issue.
Ambiguity about Israel
On November 2, the elected parliament, which has no foreign policy authority, issued a rare statement saying the ambassadors of Israel and Bahrain had left the country and economic ties had been severed.
“The ambassador of the Zionist organization (Israel) has left Bahrain. I hope he does not return,” parliamentary lawmaker Mamdouh al-Saleh told parliament a few days after the announcement.
The fact that the statement on diplomatic and economic relations came from parliament rather than the Ministry of Foreign Affairs caused ambiguity as to whether Bahrain had officially severed ties.
Israel responded that relations were stable, but a subsequent statement from the Bahraini government only mentioned that the envoys had already departed, without giving a reason. The Bahraini government made no mention of economic ties, but it was modest.
Six sources said the parliament’s announcement did not reflect government policy.
Public unrest over relations with Israel appears to have eased pressure on the government to balance domestic anger and relations with Israel, sources said.
In Jerusalem, a senior Israeli official told Reuters the envoys would return “when conditions permit.”
Emotions are running high on the streets over Israel’s assault on Gaza, which began after fighters from the Palestinian organization Hamas launched a devastating attack on Israel, killing around 1,200 people. More than 14,000 people were killed in Gaza.
protest rally
Hundreds of Bahrainis marched in a rally to show solidarity with the Palestinians and protest Saudi-Israeli relations, a movement that often cracks down on any form of protest, especially when it targets government policies. Demonstrations were held in the country.
“People are angry. The government needs to release the pressure,” Smith-Diwan said, referring to authorities’ decision to allow citizens to hold weekly protests. She described the state’s apparently lenient attitude towards protests as “disgusting” and said it reflected a contrast with Bahrain’s usual tight security.
In 2011, during the Arab Spring, when Bahrain’s majority Shiite demonstrators rose up to overthrow the monarchy, the government harshly suppressed the protests. Bahrain blamed some of the unrest on Iran, an accusation the Iranian government denied.
Almost a decade later, with Bahrain signing the Abraham Accords, concerns about Iran again formed the security context, with Gulf Arabs still viewing the Islamic Republic as an expansionist security threat to much of the Middle East. was.
Western officials pointed to a defense pact signed this year, which they said strengthened ties between Bahrain and the United States.
Israel, which has been largely cut off economically and politically from its Middle Eastern neighbors for decades, saw the deal as a shift in regional dynamics and a path to new trade ties.
“We saw here a clear signal from the Arab Gulf states that they do not want to let go of the gains they have made over the past three years,” German Foreign Ministry Minister of State Tobias Lindner told Reuters at the summit. Manama moon.
“The Royal Government of Bahrain is a staunch supporter of the Abraham Accords,” he said.
The UAE, a regional power, also intends to maintain ties with Israel that have brought billions of dollars of trade and close security cooperation, officials said.
In contrast, Bahrain-Israel trade remains modest, worth around $30 million since 2021, according to Israeli government data.
Reporting by Alexander Cornwell in Manama, with additional reporting by Maha El Dahan in Dubai and Ali Rabinovich and Dan Williams in Jerusalem.Editing: Michael Georgie, William MacLean
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