Bahrain's contacts with Israel, which are believed to have begun secretly in the nineties of the last century, have accelerated in recent years, leading to the normalization agreement announced by US President Donald Trump on Friday, September 11, 2020, and the goal of establishing full diplomatic relations between Manama and Tel Aviv.

Bahrain became the second Gulf state to announce an agreement to normalize relations with Israel within weeks, after it followed in the footsteps of its neighbor, the Emirates, which agreed to a similar agreement, which the Palestinians described as a betrayal of their cause.

But it is unlikely - according to observers - that Bahrain will proceed with the normalization step without the approval of Saudi Arabia, its close ally, which is separated from it by a sea bridge.

The following is a sequence of Israeli-Bahraini contacts

First meetings:

* 2000 and 2003   

After years of behind-the-scenes contacts, Bahrain's Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa began formal diplomatic talks with Israeli officials during the World Economic Forum summits in 2000 and 2003.

* In 2007


, the two countries' foreign ministers met at the United Nations in 2007.

* In 2009


- Israeli President Shimon Peres and the King of Bahrain met in New York on the sidelines of a UN conference.

An official Bahraini delegation traveled to Israel in the same year on an unprecedented journey to retrieve a group of citizens held in Tel Aviv, who were among pro-Palestinian activists on board a ship that was detained by the Israeli navy while it was heading to the Gaza Strip in defiance of the Israeli blockade.

The Bahraini parliament, ignoring government objections, passed a bill in October 2009 banning any contact with Israel, but it did not materialize.

* 2011 year

The Arab Spring protests in 2011 slowed normalization efforts at a time when Manama was facing a wave of protests to demand reforms.

Public steps:

* In


September 2016, Bahrain's former Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid Al Khalifa praised Israeli President Shimon Peres after his death, in a surprising statement that sparked severe Arab criticism on social media.

* 2017


- The rapprochement was publicly demonstrated when an Israeli delegation was permitted to participate in a FIFA conference in Manama.

Sports diplomacy resurfaced when an Israeli driver was allowed to participate in a car race.

- In the same year, a group of people of different religions in Bahrain said that they sent a delegation to Israel to promote "tolerance and coexistence", at a time when Arab anger towards the fate of occupied Jerusalem was simmering.

Israel's right to defend itself

* Year 2018     

In May 2018, the Bahraini foreign minister upheld Israel's right to "defend itself" after the Israeli occupation army said it had bombed dozens of Iranian military targets in Syria, in a rare public position by an Arab official.

Accelerated efforts

* In 2019    

In 2019, relations between the two sides have converged significantly.

In June, an economic workshop organized by the United States in Bahrain failed to achieve tangible results regarding an American peace plan in the Middle East, but it opened the door to closer Israeli relations with some Gulf states.

In an unprecedented interview with a senior Gulf official conducted by an Israeli journalist, Bahrain's foreign minister said on the sidelines of the two-day workshop that Israel is part of the region's history.

A month later, Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz announced that he had met his Bahraini counterpart during a visit to Washington.

In October, representatives from more than 60 countries, including Israel, met in Bahrain to discuss maritime security in the wake of attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf and Saudi oil installations.

  * 2020  

Bahrain welcomed the sudden Emirati normalization agreement with Israel on August 13, describing it as a "historic" step.

- Nevertheless, the King of Bahrain, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, said that he told US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that his country remains committed to the Arab peace initiative sponsored by Saudi Arabia, which calls for the complete withdrawal of Israel from the occupied Palestinian territories after 1967.

But Manama later agreed to allow Emirati flights to and from Israel to fly over its airspace, a day after Saudi Arabia announced a similar decision.