Israel has reignited its push to expand friendly relations with the Arab bloc, with foreign minister Eli Cohen travelling to Manama on Monday.
Cohen was greeted by his Bahraini counterpart Abdullatif al-Zayani at the airport. Cohen is due to inaugurate Israel's embassy in Bahrain apart from holding bilateral talks with al-Zayani and other senior government officials.
This is the first visit by Cohen to any of the four countries with whom Tel Aviv had signed the Abraham Accords in 2020, brokered by former US president Donald Trump. The other Arab countries who have signed the accords include the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Sudan.
The fact that only two Gulf Arab states have thus far signed it means that there remain misgivings with many of the Arab states when it comes to Israel and that normalisation of relations remains a far-off dream.
The diplomatic push also took a back seat after Benjamin Netanyahu was re-elected into office with a new government. His hard-line view towards Palestinians and towards the greater Middle East cautioned others who were amenable to normalising ties with Israel.
However, it is said that Trump's successor, Joe Biden, in the White House is continuing Washington's policy of negotiating normalisation of ties between Israel and the Middle East, chief among them being Saudi Arabia.
Cohen's official visit was originally scheduled for July but was pushed after Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itmar Ben-Gvir made a controversial trip to the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in Jerusalem that triggered an outcry in the Arab and larger Islamic world.