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- Bahrain to announce normalization with Israel in near future: report
Bahrain to announce normalization with Israel in near future: report
US said to seek a Bahrain-Israel normalization announcement in mid-September
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
Bahrain is expected to become the next Gulf kingdom to formally normalize ties with the Jewish state, an Israeli official told Kan public broadcaster Wednesday.
According to the report, the kingdom is expected to announce the move after an accord between Israel and the United Arab Emirates has been signed.
The official is cited as saying that Washington seeks to host the ceremony where Israel and the UAE will sign a treaty formalizing their diplomatic ties in mid-September.
The US is said to be pushing for the accord to be signed before the Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year holidays, which begin on September 18.
Bahrain, in its turn, is reportedly pushing for the process to speed up as well after long-running talks on the prospect.
Bahrain was one of the countries that US State Secretary Mike Pompeo visited during his recent Middle East tour centered on the Israeli-UAE normalization.
At the time, it came out with an implicit rejection of normalizing its ties with Israel as it informed the US diplomat that it remained committed to a two-state solution and backed the Arab Peace Initiative -- a plan that, among other items, vows normalization between Israel and Muslim nations once a Palestinian state with a capital in East Jerusalem has been established.
Nevertheless, in their comments to the local Palestinian community, the UAE leaders also asserted they were still supporting the Palestinian bid for statehood, and the normalization did not come at the expense of their cause.