A ceremony is taking place today in Washington for the signing of the normalization agreement between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain, while Manama said that this agreement is not a abandonment of the Palestinian cause, but rather is a "protection for Bahrain's interests" from what it called "the Iranian threat."

The signature will be in the presence of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the UAE foreign ministers Abdullah bin Zayed and the Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdul Latif Al-Zayani and US officials.

A senior US administration official said that there will be bilateral meetings between officials of the three countries and the United States, followed by the signing ceremony of the two agreements.

Deferred details

The Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot quoted an unnamed official in the Israeli delegation in Washington as saying that the details of the agreement with the UAE and Bahrain will not be published until after the signing of today, Tuesday.

The source attributed that to the "sensitivity" involved in those details, without further explanation.

"We will sign the agreements first, and after that we will present them for approval by the government and the Knesset," he said.

He said that Israel would sign a "peace treaty" with the UAE and a "peace declaration" with Bahrain.

Regarding the reason behind signing a "peace declaration" with Bahrain, the Israeli official explained that the two countries agreed only a few days ago to reach peace between them.

Strengthen the partnership

For his part, Bahraini Interior Minister Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa said that establishing relations with Israel aims for what he called "protecting Bahrain's supreme interests and strengthening the strategic partnership with Washington amid the constant threat from Iran."

The statement said, "Iran has chosen the behavior of imposing hegemony in several forms, and it has posed a constant danger to harm our internal security," noting that "it is wise to anticipate the danger and deal with it."

The minister added in a statement that "this matter is not an abandonment of the Palestinian cause ... it is for the sake of enhancing the security of Bahrainis and the stability of their economy."

Phone calls

On the other hand, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz discussed yesterday by phone with his Bahraini counterpart Abdullah bin Hassan Al-Nuaimi, the peace declaration to be signed today at the White House, and a number of regional issues, and invited him to visit Israel.

The Bahrain News Agency reported earlier Monday that the Bahraini Minister of Industry and Trade and the Israeli Minister of Regional Cooperation spoke by phone and discussed trade, industrial and tourism cooperation between the two countries.

The agency said that "cooperation between the two countries under the umbrella of peace ... will positively affect their economies."

Bahrain said on Friday that it would establish relations with Israel, which is attached to the United Arab Emirates, which announced the same measure last month.

Israel gains

As for Netanyahu, he said yesterday evening, Monday, that Israel had worked for many years to sign a peace agreement with the UAE and Bahrain, pledging to join more Arab countries on the train of normalization.

"He held in my hand the draft of the historic peace treaty between Israel and the UAE and the historic peace declaration between Israel and Bahrain," Netanyahu added in a video clip he posted on his Twitter account from Washington.

He considered that the signing of the two agreements with the UAE and Bahrain "will have a tremendous and positive impact on all Israeli citizens," to whom he addressed, saying, "I promise you, according to what I see here, that other countries will do that as well."

Demonstrations in Bahrain

In the context, various regions of Bahrain witnessed night demonstrations rejecting normalization on the eve of the signing of the agreement with Israel in Washington.

The demonstrators raised slogans denouncing the agreement, which they described as the deal of treason between the Bahraini regime and Israel, and they raised banners denouncing normalization.