Israeli President Isaac Herzog is making his first visit to Bahrain Sunday amid concerns that efforts to deepen ties with one-time adversaries in the Middle East are stalling, Report informs via the Wall Street Journal.
While Israel has made significant advances with the United Arab Emirates in the past two years, relations have been slower to flourish with Bahrain and other countries that normalized ties in deals brokered by the Trump administration known as the Abraham Accords in 2020.
Trade between Israel and the UAE more than doubled between the first half of 2021 and the first half of 2022, from $560 million to more than $1.2 billion. Trade between Israel and Bahrain in 2021 was $7.5 million. More than half a million Israelis have traveled to the UAE since 2020. Fewer than 20,000 Israelis have traveled to Bahrain this year.
The Abraham Accords were intended to launch a transformative new chapter for the region. But two years later, even their advocates say new links between Israel and the Arab world have been slow to develop beyond government security and diplomatic ties and Israeli tourism in the UAE. Hopes that other Arab countries, especially Saudi Arabia, would join the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan in normalizing relations haven’t materialized.