Bahrain, Israel sign security agreement

Agencies |   Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Israel and Bahrain signed a security cooperation agreement yesterday, the first between Israel and a Gulf nation, during a visit by the Israeli defence minister to Bahrain amid heightened tensions in the region.

“The MOU (memorandum of understanding) framework will support any future cooperation in the areas of intelligence, mil-to-mil (military to military), industrial collaboration and more,” the Israeli Defence Ministry said in a statement.

An Israeli official said yesterday’s agreement with Bahrain was the first such pact that Israel had reached with one of its new allies in the Gulf.

“Only one year following the signing of the (Abraham) Accords, we have achieved an important defence agreement which will contribute to the security of both countries and the stability of the region,” the Israeli Defence Ministry quoted defence minister Benny Gantz as saying.

It said he and his Bahraini counterpart signed the document. Earlier in the day, Gantz visited the US Navy Fifth Fleet’s headquarters in Bahrain. “Against a backdrop of increasing maritime and aerial threats, our ironclad cooperation is more important than ever,” Gantz said on Twitter after the naval base visit.

The UAE on Wednesday said it intercepted three drones that entered its airspace over unpopulated areas in the fourth such attack in the past few weeks.

The first three assaults were launched by Yemen’s Iran aligned Houthis in an escalation with a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia and which includes the UAE.