Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi has announced that his Bahraini counterpart Abdullatif bin Rashid al-Zayani is planning to visit Israel next week.
This will be the first public visit to Israel by Zayani who served as Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council before.
Israel's parliament on Tuesday approved a US-brokered deal establishing formal relations with Bahrain, by a vote of 62 lawmakers in favor and 14 opposed.
Voting was completed after a marathon five-hour legislative session that saw the participation of around 80 Knesset’s members.
“This agreement opened a tremendous window of opportunity for development and promoting broad economic and trade cooperation and a contribution to the Israeli economy,” Ashkenazi said.
He called on the Palestinians to join this discourse saying: "This is the time for a discourse of unity and creating true and honest peace, without preconditions.”
During the session, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “Peace deals with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and normalization with Sudan have not fallen on us from the sky. It has come from a change in policy. In the last decade, Israeli governments have systematically nurtured our power when it comes to security, economy, cyber, foreign relations, and other spheres.”
Netanyahu predicted more regional countries would move to open relations with them.
"The buds of normalization are already out there, waiting to blossom. If we pursue the policy I crafted, I am convinced that the flowering will be witnessed in the open," he said.
The PM mocked the “Joint List” for refusing to vote in favor of UAE and Bahrain agreements.
However, Joint List chairman Ayman Odeh said: "There will be no peace without an end to the occupation.”
The US-brokered deals with the UAE and Bahrain were formalized at the White House on September 15.
Israel and Bahrain announced Oct. 18 that they have made peace and established formal diplomatic relations.
