AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Israel has officially opened its embassy in Bahrain despite widespread protests by Bahraini people against the move following the Al Khalifah regime’s normalization of relations with the illegal entity.
The ceremony was held in the capital Manama on Monday in the presence of Bahrain's Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al Zayani and his Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen as well as a number of Bahraini businessmen and officials.
Cohen said during the inauguration ceremony that Manama and Tel Aviv had agreed to “increase the number of direct flights, the tourism, the trade volume and the investments.”
Earlier in the day, the Israeli foreign minister met Bahrain’s Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa and discussed "the importance of advancing a free trade agreement and projects” between the two sides.
The opening of the Israeli mission in Bahrain took place three years after the Al Khalifah regime and the United Arab Emirates signed US-brokered normalization agreements with Israel in an event in Washington.
Sudan and Morocco also followed suit and inked similar US-brokered normalization deals with the occupying regime.
The Bahraini people have repeatedly expressed their opposition to the normalization of ties with the Israeli regime by holding demonstrations.
Bahrain’s main opposition group al-Wefaq and the kingdom’s top cleric Sheikh Isa Qassim have also repeatedly condemned the normalization move by the Al Khalifah dynasty.
The move sparked widespread condemnations from the Palestinians as well as nations and human rights advocates across the globe, especially within the Muslim world.
Palestinians slammed the deals as a treacherous “stab in the back” and a betrayal of their cause against the decades-long Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
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