Bahrain admits Israeli officer will be stationed in Persian Gulf state

Bahrain has confirmed media reports that an Israeli officer will be stationed in the tiny Persian Gulf country, which plays host to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet.

In a statement carried by the state news agency on Saturday, Bahrain’s Foreign Ministry said the appointment will be related to the work of what it called an international coalition of more than 34 countries.

The coalition’s task includes securing freedom of navigation in the territorial waters of the region, protecting international trade and confronting piracy and terrorism, it claimed.

Earlier media reports said the Tel Aviv regime is set to dispatch a naval officer to an official posting in Bahrain, marking the first time an Arab country will openly host a stationed Israeli military dignitary.

The officer will travel to Bahrain in the next few weeks, where he will serve as a liaison for the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, according to Israel’s Channel 13 TV.

The move, the report added, was agreed upon during a visit by Israeli minister of war, Benny Gantz, to Bahrain.

During his trip to Manama, Gantz signed a memorandum of understanding with his Bahraini counterpart, formalizing the security relationship between the two regimes.

The agreement “will help advance intelligence cooperation, a framework for exercises, and cooperation” between the “defense industries” of Bahrain and Israel, Gantz’s office said.

Bahrain, along with the United Arab Emirates, signed a peace pact with Israel during an official ceremony hosted by former US president Donald Trump at the White House in September 2020. Sudan and Morocco followed suit later in the year and inked similar US-brokered normalization deals with the occupying entity.

Palestinians condemned the deals as a treacherous “stab in the back” of their cause against the decades-long Israeli occupation.