MANAMA (Dispatches) – Bahrain has confirmed that it recalled its ambassador from the Israeli-occupied territories, whose escalating war in Gaza has posed a challenge for regional governments that have pursued closer ties with the occupying regime.
Following an earlier statement from Bahrain’s lower house of parliament, the government confirmed on Thursday that its ambassador was returning and that the Zionist regime’s ambassador in Manama had left “a while ago”.
The consultative parliamentary body – which has no powers in the area of foreign policy – said earlier in the day that economic relations with the occupying regime had also been severed. But Israel said that ties with Bahrain were “stable”.
“Economic relations with Israel have been halted,” said a statement from the Council of Representatives on Thursday.
The move was “in support of the Palestinian cause and the legitimate rights of the brotherly Palestinian people,” the statement read.
Abdulnabi Salman, the Bahraini legislature’s first deputy speaker, confirmed the decision to AFP, saying the “ongoing conflict in Gaza cannot tolerate silence.”
Bahrain’s National Communication Center, the government’s media arm, said the “priority at this stage must be focused on protecting the lives of civilians” in the besieged Palestinian territory.
The brutal war that the Zionist regime has been waging against the coastal sliver since October 7, has so far claimed the lives of over 10,000, including 3,700 children and more than 2,300 women.
The regime launched the war after Gaza’s resistance groups conducted Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, their biggest operation against the occupying entity in years.
Bahrain and the regime established diplomatic relations in 2020 as part of United States-brokered Abraham Accords.
Back in 2021, Bahrain’s main opposition group, the al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, denounced Manama’s normalization of relations with Israel as “a crime,” emphasizing that the ruling Al Khalifah regime’s policies did not conform to the will of the Bahraini nation.
The country has witnessed numerous protests ever since the rapprochement, condemning the detente as an instance of “treason.”