King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa of Bahrain met with Israeli President Isaad Herzog on Sunday, in the first visit by an Israeli president to the Gulf kingdom.
Both countries normalised relations in 2020 under the Abraham Accords, a series of agreements between Israel, Bahrain and the UAE, and later Morocco, intended to enhance peace and regional security.
In March, the countries were joined by Egypt at the Negev summit, which discussed ways to enhance co-operation in a number of sectors. Israel and the UAE say their bilateral trade could reach $10 billion in the next five years, after signing a historic free trade deal in June.
Bahrain and Israel are also in the process of negotiating a free trade agreement.
Further agreements, between Israel, Egypt, the UAE and Jordan, were finalised at the Cop27 summit in Sharm El Sheikh last month, encompassing seawater desalination and green energy.
King Hamad said that Bahrain supports "achieving a just, comprehensive and sustainable peace that guarantees the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and that will lead to stability, development and prosperity for both the Palestinian and Israeli peoples, as well as all peoples of the region," the Bahrain News Agency said.
Mr Herzog said on Twitter he welcomed King Hamad's "vision of peace, friendship and tolerance".
"My visit underscores the importance Israel attaches to relations with Bahrain, including partnerships on defence, trade, tourism and environment," he said.
Outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid, then Israel's top diplomat, visited Bahrain in September last year to open the Israeli embassy there.
In February, Israel signed a defence agreement with Bahrain and Naftali Bennett became the first Israeli premier to visit the country.
Mr Herzog said on Sunday he would follow his stop in Bahrain with a visit to Abu Dhabi.
Jewel of the Expo 2020
252 projectors installed on Al Wasl dome
13.6km of steel used in the structure that makes it equal in length to 16 Burj Khalifas
550 tonnes of moulded steel were raised last year to cap the dome
724,000 cubic metres is the space it encloses
Stands taller than the leaning tower of Pisa
Steel trellis dome is one of the largest single structures on site
The size of 16 tennis courts and weighs as much as 500 elephants
Al Wasl means connection in Arabic
World’s largest 360-degree projection surface
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
