Manama

Overview

Manama is the capital of Bahrain and its seat of national decision-making. The royal government’s policies on finance, public life, regional diplomacy and security are made and announced in the capital. Manama is also a center of commerce and international engagement in the Persian Gulf. Its role extends beyond the administration of a small island kingdom: Bahrain hosts the headquarters of the United States Navy’s Fifth Fleet, while Manama receives defense officials, diplomats and religious leaders for meetings with regional consequences.

The city has become especially prominent in Bahrain’s relationship with Israel. It hosted the 2019 Peace to Prosperity economic workshop, where public engagement between Israel and Gulf states gained visibility. Bahrain and Israel signed a diplomatic communiqué in Manama on October 18, 2020, as part of normalization under the Abraham Accords. Israel opened an embassy in the city in 2021. Those steps developed alongside Bahrain’s longstanding security concerns about the Iranian regime, making the relationship significant for regional defense as well as trade.

Manama also contains Bahrain’s synagogue, established by a Jewish community with roots in Iraq, Iran and India. Its renovation and the revival of public prayer services have given the community a visible place in the capital’s religious life. The city’s public institutions have, at the same time, faced disputes over religious practice, political representation and security. These different strands of Manama’s history are closely tied to its position as Bahrain’s capital.

Geography

Manama stands on Bahrain’s main island in the Persian Gulf. A narrow strip of water separates it from Muharraq, linking the capital’s setting to the wider network of Bahraini islands and coastal settlements. The city’s Gulf location gives national decisions made there a regional setting: Bahrain is near Iran, maintains close ties with Saudi Arabia, and provides a base for United States naval operations in Gulf waters.

That location helps explain why maritime and aviation security recur in Manama’s diplomatic activity. Bahrain, the United States and Poland co-hosted a maritime and aviation security meeting in the city attended by Israeli Foreign Ministry official Dana Benvenisti-Gabay. Naval Support Activity Bahrain, home to the United States Fifth Fleet, has a headquarters area in Manama. Security at the base and in the surrounding capital therefore concerns Bahrain and its foreign partners alike.

Manama’s economy is connected to Bahrain’s wider dependence on Gulf trade, oil revenue and regional financial support. Weak oil prices strained the national budget before the 2019 Peace to Prosperity workshop. Plans for a $16 billion, 2,117-kilometer railway connecting all six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council illustrate the scale of regional transport ambitions relevant to Bahrain, although the project is a Gulf-wide plan rather than a completed Manama railway.

Jewish history

Manama’s Jewish community grew from families who settled in Bahrain during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Jews arrived from Iraq, with others coming from Iran and India. The Yadgar family came from Iraq in 1880; other families, including the Nonoos, became established in local commerce and banking. These families formed part of Bahrain’s Mizrahi Jewish history. At its largest, the Jewish population of Bahrain has been estimated at as many as 1,500 people, though that figure concerns the country rather than Manama alone.

The community consecrated a small synagogue in Manama. For decades, Jewish worship largely took place in private. The synagogue’s later renovation, costing about $159,000, made regular public services possible again, with Ebrahim Nonoo able to lead prayers there. The building’s renewed use marked a change in the visibility of Jewish life in Bahrain’s capital.

During the 2019 economic workshop in Manama, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa told Jared Kushner that he was proud Bahrain had a synagogue. After learning it lacked a Torah scroll, Kushner commissioned one for the congregation and presented it to the king for local use. The episode connected the city’s Jewish heritage with the period of increasingly open contact between Bahrain and Israel.

Jewish visitors and diplomats continued to meet the community after normalization. An American Jewish Committee delegation visited Manama’s renovated synagogue, met members of Bahrain’s Jewish community and held discussions with Israeli diplomats. King Hamad also received an American Jewish Committee delegation at a royal palace in Manama. Such visits made the synagogue a place of communal worship and a visible part of Bahrain’s diplomatic engagement.

Modern history

Manama has hosted regional diplomacy across several decades. On October 25–26, 1994, it held the sixth meeting of the multilateral Working Group on the Environment, attended by 41 delegates. The meeting formed part of efforts to address shared regional problems through direct discussion. Later gatherings placed the city at the center of debates over Gulf security and relations with Israel.

Domestic economic policy has also been shaped in the capital. Bahrain raised gasoline prices in January 2018 as part of efforts to reduce subsidies and strengthen public finances, then paused further austerity measures two weeks later while officials considered compensation for citizens facing higher living costs. Gulf donors subsequently conditioned a five-year aid package on spending restraint and increased non-oil revenue. These decisions reflected the pressure weak oil income placed on Bahrain’s budget and the limits that public opposition placed on reform.

Manama hosted the Peace to Prosperity workshop on June 25–26, 2019. The meeting focused on the economic aspects of Middle East peace and gave Bahrain a prominent role in an American-led regional initiative. Its timing was notable: weak oil prices and subsidy cuts had already strained Bahrain’s finances. Israeli participation and the workshop’s public setting added to the development of more open contact between Israel and Gulf countries.

Jared Kushner later traveled to Manama during negotiations over Bahrain’s relations with Israel, meeting King Hamad and Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa. On October 18, 2020, Bahrain and Israel signed their joint diplomatic communiqué in the capital. The signing placed Manama among the principal sites of the Abraham Accords normalization process. Agreements reached at the October meeting covered economic cooperation, civil aviation, finance, communications, mail, agriculture, cooperation between foreign ministries and exemptions from diplomatic visa requirements.

In September 2021, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid became the first Israeli cabinet member to visit Bahrain and opened Israel’s embassy in Manama. By the embassy’s opening, the two countries had signed 12 memorandums of understanding. The permanent diplomatic presence gave their relationship a working base in the capital after the 2020 communiqué.

Multilateral cooperation continued. On June 27, 2022, senior officials from Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates and the United States held the inaugural meeting of the Negev Forum Steering Committee in Manama. Bahrain’s hosting role showed how its ties with Israel had become part of a wider network of regional meetings, rather than a relationship confined to the two governments.

Manama’s public calendar also includes religious gatherings. In 2022, Bahrain’s government permitted large Ashura gatherings in the capital. That November, Manama hosted a conference on peaceful coexistence attended by Pope Francis, the Grand Imam of al-Azhar and other religious leaders. During his visit, Pope Francis celebrated an open-air Mass attended by about 30,000 people. Public religious practice nevertheless remained subject to restrictions: Manama police took legal action after images circulated of foreign workers eating in public during Ramadan in 2022.

Security

Security has been a persistent concern for Bahrain’s rulers in Manama. In March 1996, riots and attacks in the capital caused deaths and extensive damage. Bahraini forces detained 44 Hezbollah-Bahrain operatives, who confessed to training by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iran and by the terrorist organization Hezbollah in Lebanon. The episode established an early connection between violence in the capital and armed networks supported by the Iranian regime.

In 2011, mass protests against Bahrain’s rulers led to a military crackdown backed by intervention from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The crisis exposed sharp tensions between the Sunni ruling family and the country’s Shiite majority. Iranian regime support for armed cells became a continuing security concern after the protests. The unrest also showed the importance of Bahrain’s ties to its Gulf neighbors: Saudi and Emirati forces intervened to support the rulers in Manama.

Iranian regime pressure continued in subsequent years. Bahraini authorities uncovered a bomb-making facility in the Manama area in 2015 and reported arrests linked to the Revolutionary Guard Corps. On June 19, 2016, Qasem Soleimani, then head of the Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, threatened Bahrain’s royal family with an armed uprising over the government’s actions. Such threats made the protection of the capital a central concern in Bahrain’s regional relationships.

The United States naval presence adds another dimension to Manama’s security role. Bahrain hosts the headquarters of the United States Fifth Fleet, giving the United States a major naval foothold in the Persian Gulf. The fleet’s base links the city to American maritime operations and makes facilities in and near Manama significant to the defense of Bahrain and its partners.

The International Institute for Strategic Studies convenes the recurring Manama Dialogue, a forum for Middle Eastern defense and security officials and their foreign partners. Its meetings give governments a place to address regional crises and coordinate with states outside the Gulf. An Israeli national security adviser addressed the dialogue during the first years of normalization, reflecting Israel’s growing participation in discussions held in Bahrain’s capital.

Bahrain’s cooperation with Israel has acquired a clear defense dimension. In February 2022, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz arrived in Manama aboard an Israeli military aircraft. It was the first Israeli military flight over Saudi Arabia to land in a Gulf country. Bahrain and Israel signed a security cooperation agreement that month. Their partnership brought Israeli defense ties into a city already closely connected to American naval operations and Saudi security interests. Iranian regime intimidation strengthened the importance of that cooperation for Bahrain.

Manama came under direct attack during the Iranian regime’s strikes on Bahrain in February and March 2026. On February 28, the regime launched 45 ballistic missiles and nine drones at Bahrain. Missiles and drones struck a headquarters area in Manama associated with Naval Support Activity Bahrain, home to the Fifth Fleet. A separate drone strike severely damaged the city’s Era residential tower. Other attacks hit the Crowne Plaza Hotel, where no injuries were reported, and targeted Exhibition Road. The strikes showed how Bahrain’s capital, civilian buildings and United States-linked facilities could all be exposed during a regional conflict.

Present day

Manama remains Bahrain’s center of government, diplomacy and security coordination. Decisions made there have effects across the country, while events hosted in the capital connect Bahrain to Gulf neighbors, Israel, the United States and other foreign partners. The Manama Dialogue provides a recurring setting for defense talks; the Israeli embassy and Bahrain’s normalization agreements provide channels for sustained diplomatic work.

The city’s public life reflects both openness and constraint. Its renovated synagogue supports renewed Jewish worship, and major interfaith events have brought religious leaders to Manama. Large Ashura gatherings have been permitted, while enforcement of Ramadan rules has affected foreign workers. These developments sit alongside the political and security tensions that followed the 2011 protests.

Manama’s strategic position gives its partnership with Israel significance beyond commercial exchange. Bahrain’s proximity to Iran, its close relationship with Saudi Arabia and its hosting of the United States Fifth Fleet place the capital within a wider regional defense network. The 2020 diplomatic communiqué, the embassy opened in 2021 and the 2022 defense visit each deepened that network. Iranian regime threats and the 2026 strikes underscored the continuing security pressures facing Bahrain’s capital.