Israel to appoint attache at US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain

JERUSALEM: Israel will appoint a military attache to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain soon, as the Gulf monarchy and three other Arab states took part in a rare summit in Israel.

“This will happen soon – an attache to the fleet,” Israeli ambassador to Manama Eitan Naeh said on Mondayadding that a date was yet unset. “It is in the midst of various bureaucratic processes. I reckon that, by the summer, we will have a fuller staff, along with other officials who will join the embassy.”

Israel has been drawing closer to Gulf Arab countries and US military forces in region amid shared worries about Iran. The top diplomats of the United States and four Arab countries have convened in Israel in a display of unity against Iran but also used the rare summit to press their host to revive long-stalled peacemaking with the Palestinians.

Concluding the two days of discussions, Israel said the event would be repeated and expanded as it builds up commercial and security ties with like-minded Arab states. “This new architecture – the shared capabilities we are building – intimidates and deters our common enemies, first and foremost Iran and its proxies,” Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said alongside his US, Emirati, Bahrani, Moroccan and Egyptian counterparts.

The United States and other world powers see restoring a 2015 Iranian nuclear deal as their best option. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken offered Washington’s regional allies reassurances in the event that diplomacy failed.

“As neighbours and, in the case of the United States, as friends, we will also work together to confront common security challenges and threats, including those from Iran and its proxies,” he said.

The UAE, Bahrain and Morocco normalised ties with Israel under a 2020 US initiative known as the Abraham Accords. Egypt in 1979 became the first Arab state to make peace with Israel.

While hailing the accords, Blinken added: “We have to be clear that these regional peace agreements are not a substitute for progress between Palestinians and Israelis”.