Bahrain’s King Hamad says relations with Israel are a “polished message” for peace.
The Bahraini monarch said that the normalization deal between the Kingdom and Israel should lead to greater efforts towards ending the Palestinian-Israeli conflict through the two-state solution.
Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, in his speech to the seventy-fifth session of the United Nations General Assembly on video Thursday, called for “intensifying efforts to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict according to the two-state solution … leading to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital. On the resolutions of international legitimacy and the Arab Peace Initiative. “
King Hamad also said that relations with Israel are a “polished message” for peace.
“The announcement of establishing relations with Israel is a polished message confirming that our hands are extended for the sake of a just and comprehensive peace,” he said.
Hamad’s statements came a day after an official Israeli delegation made the first visit of Israeli diplomats to Bahrain since the two countries signed the normalization agreement.
Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates signed normalization agreements with Israel on September 15 at the White House, as part of a US diplomatic campaign as Donald Trump seeks re-election.
However, the Palestinian leadership denounced the agreements and described them as a betrayal of the Palestinian cause.
During the past few weeks and after the UAE and Bahrain agreements with Israel, many senior Israeli and American officials, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US envoy to Israel David Friedman, confirmed that the Israeli annexation plan had only been postponed, not canceled.
Hamad praised the American efforts to achieve “peace and stability in the region” by brokering agreements with Israel, saying that it sent “a civilized message … the best guarantee for the future of all the peoples of the region.”
In Bahrain, civil society organizations criticized the normalization of relations with Israel, saying that recognition should only come after the Palestinians obtain an independent state.
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