Iran Condemns Bahrain Over Israel Opening Embassy
Iran on Friday described Bahrain's hosting of Israel's foreign minister, who the previous day inaugurated the Jewish state's embassy in Manama, as "shameful".
Iran and Israel are sworn enemies and Bahrain is one of four Arab nations to have normalized ties with the Jewish state over the past year or so.
Sunni-ruled Bahrain has faced unrest among its large Shiite community which it has consistently blamed on Iran, charges that Tehran denies.
"The shameful welcoming by Bahraini leaders to... the regime occupying Jersualem" took place "against the will of the Bahraini nation," Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh announced in a statement.
The comments came after Israel's top diplomat Yair Lapid on Thursday inaugurated his country's embassy in Bahrain, a year after the two countries normalized ties and in a first official visit by a foreign minister of the Jewish state to the Gulf kingdom.
Lapid met King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa, in what Israeli media said was the first public meeting of a Gulf monarch with an Israeli official.
Khatibzadeh deplored "all initiatives seeking to stabilize the destructive presence of Israel in the region."
This rising presence "will lead to further escalation and insecurity", he added.
Alongside Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan and Morocco have all normalized ties with Israel over the past year.
The Gulf monarchy cut ties with Iran in 2016.
Iran meanwhile refuses to recognize Israel and consistently positions itself as a defender of the Palestinian cause.
01 October 2021, 16:13
02
What business is it of Iran to comment on another country's sovereign actions?
01 October 2021, 19:23
13
"Iran meanwhile refuses to recognize Israel and consistently positions itself as a defender of the Palestinian cause."
There are many countries which position themselves as defenders of the Palestinian cause, but this does not prevent them from having good relations with Israel.
They understand that it is more advantageous to talk to both sides of a conflict than to ignore one of them.
02 October 2021, 14:33
11
Prove it.
Get the Palestinian leadership to stop threatening going to the International Court, to sit down with the Israelis and start talking about 2021, not 1948, problems. Then, and only then, will matters move forward.
01 October 2021, 20:15
01
The Palestinian cause is fervently elated and solidified when all the Muslim world strike a deal with Israel without relinquishing their right to a part of Palestine. It's only through good neighborly relationship that the Muslim world would be able to reach an equitable deal with Israel, when more than a century of animosity with Israel led to Israel appropriating more Palestinian land and becoming more intransigent. The Arab world has come to this conviction, though belatedly; but, it's better late than never. I congratulate the Arab world for their rapprochement with Israel, and God willing, the resolution of the Palestinian crisis would easily follow afterwards. This issue with resistance that destroyed countries, including Lebanon, is a stupid joke when everyone knows that Israel couldn't be defeated.
