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Israel Forwards Request to Bahrain to Open Embassy in Manama, Reports Say

TEL AVIV (Sputnik) – The Israeli delegation has delivered a letter of Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi to his Bahraini counterpart, Abdullatif bin Rashid Alzayani, with an official request to open an Israeli embassy in the capital of Manama, the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported.
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The letter to Alzayani was handed over by Ashkenazi’s chief of staff Haim Regev during the visit of Israel’s and US’ high-level delegations to Manama on Sunday, according to the news outlet.

The delegations, which arrived in Bahrain on the very first direct commercial flight heading from Tel Aviv to the kingdom's capital, were led by US Treasure Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Israeli National Security Advisor Meir Ben-Shabbat. Manama was represented by Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Abdullah bin Ahmed Al Khalifa and other high-ranking officials from transport, telecommunications, industry, commerce, tourism and aviation ministries.

During the meeting, Bahrain and Israel signed a joint communique on establishing diplomatic and peaceful relations, as well as seven US-mediated memoranda of understanding in different spheres of cooperation.

The establishment of relations between Israel and Bahrain followed the signing of the Abraham Accord by the countries, along with the United Arab Emirates at an official ceremony held in the White House on 15 September.

Bahrain and the UAE became the third and fourth Arab nations to officially normalize relations with Israel, after Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994.

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