Confusion has set in regarding the status of diplomatic relations between Israel and the Gulf state of Bahrain, after reports circulated Thursday that the small nation, a partner with Israel in the Abraham Accords, had recalled its ambassador.
According to the Times of Israel, the Bahraini parliament recalled the ambassador, but the government itself had not done so:
The Bahraini House of Representatives, which deals with legislative matters, releases the announcement about Manama recalling Ambassador Khaled Al-Jalahma from Israel.
…
Israel says that it did not receive any “announcement or decision from the Bahraini government to recall the countries’ ambassadors.”
“Israel-Bahrain relations are stable,” says the Foreign Ministry in an official statement.
Thus far, the Abraham Accords countries have been critical of Israel but have not dropped the agreement. The United Arab Emirates slammed the brutal Hamas terror attack on October 7, which killed over 1,200 Israelis, most of them civilians.
Saudi Arabia, which was close to a peace and normalization agreement with Israel before the war, has not dropped the idea of reaching such an agreement in the future, though it has been critical of Israel’s conduct in the war against Hamas thus far.
Numerous Israeli sources report that Arab officials are privately conveying support for Israel and the hope that the IDF smashes Hamas, because radical Islamic terror organizations — especially those backed by Iran — are a common threat to the Arab states.
Bahrain has a large Shia population that is thought to be sympathetic to Iran, which backs Hamas in the conflict with Israel.
Editor’s Note: This story was updated to reflect a revised number on the death toll from the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel. The Israeli government estimate of 1,400 was revised to around 1,200, according to Reuters.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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