White House hails Arab nation ‘recognizing Israel as a country'

President Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the 2015 nuclear deal is helping to improve relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors, according to a senior White House adviser.

“We had yesterday the Bahrain foreign minister tweeting support for Israel’s right to self-defense against Iranian aggression,” Victoria Coates, a special assistant to the president on the national security council, told reporters Friday. “I think it’s so important to see a Gulf nation, an Arab nation like Bahrain come out, recognize Israel as a country, which is something, and then [to recognize Israel as] a country that has the right to defend itself against a country like Iran.”