Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa has told the visiting U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that his country remains committed to the creation of a Palestinian state.
Pompeo was in Manama to try and forge more links between Israel and the Arab world after a U.S.-brokered deal with the UAE.
Bahrain’s King, however, said he told Pompeo they stand behind the Arab Peace Initiative which calls for Israel’s complete withdrawal from Palestinian territories occupied after 1967.
“The king stressed the importance of intensifying efforts to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict according to the two-state solution… to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital,” the official Bahrain News Agency reported.
Pompeo said in a tweet only that he discussed with Bahrain’s royal rulers the “importance of building regional peace and stability” and “countering Iran’s malign influence”.
Bahrain, whose contacts with Israel date back to the 1990s, was the first Gulf country to welcome the UAE deal and was considered a front-runner to follow in its footsteps.
The UAE’s controversial step has been met with criticism from some parts of the Arab world, with the Palestinian leadership condemning it as a “stab in the back”.
