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.”
Bahrain is a member of the Arab League, which has historically refused to recognize Israel’s statehood and sought to “lessen the Israeli gains” from Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state. Many of the Arab states share Israel’s concern about the threat of Iranian hegemony in the Middle East, which has contributed to a quiet rapprochement, in some cases.
But Bahrain’s top diplomat turned up the volume after Israel carried out a series of airstrikes against Iran forces in Syria.
“As long as Iran continues the current status quo of its forces and rockets operating in the region, any country — including Israel — has the right to defend itself by eliminating the source of danger,” Bahraini Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa tweeted Thursday.
Coates emphasized that Khalifa offered that olive branch just days before the opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem.
“[T]he sea change has been coming over a period of years, but to come out publicly and make that statement, I think is really powerful, and to make it three days before the embassy move, I think it shows you that the president is absolutely doing the right thing here,” she said. “It is not upsetting any regional balance; in fact, his leadership is what’s bringing the region together.”
Bahrain and Israel don’t have formal diplomatic ties, but the monarchy sent a delegation of clerics to Israel “with a message of peace to the whole world” in December.
