Bahrain's move to allow an Israeli delegation to attend a recent UNESCO conference may be seen as a sign of Manama's drive to further develop ties with Tel Aviv.
The newspaper Haaretz has quoted a source in Washington as saying that ties between Bahrain and israel are getting warmer even though official bilateral relations are not “around the corner.”
Jonathan Schanzer, of the Washington-based Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a think tank, pointed out that “it makes a lot of sense for Bahrain and israel to increase their cooperation.”
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Referring to both countries' negative perception of Iran, Schanzer said that although Bahrain and Israel have yet to get ready for “total normalization”, the two countries “are testing the waters and the trend is very clear.”
He described Bahrain as “a bellwether” for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia, which, Schanzer recalled, also view Iran as their arch foe while perceiving Israel as their possible partner against Tehran.
“It seems sometimes like Saudi Arabia and the UAE are using Bahrain – which is allied with them but is smaller and less influential – to do ‘trial balloons' regarding foreign policy. It's true with regard to the three countries' rivalry with their neighbor Qatar, and also with regard to Israel,” he pointed out.
Tehran Rejects Manama's…
