Bahrain–Israel normalization agreement

Overview

The Bahrain–Israel normalization agreement is the agreement through which Bahrain and Israel began direct, peaceful relations in 2020. Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid al-Zayani and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed a declaration at the White House on September 15, 2020, during a ceremony hosted by United States President Donald Trump. Emirati Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed signed alongside them for the United Arab Emirates. The Bahrain–Israel declaration formed part of the Abraham Accords, which created a framework for new diplomatic relations between Israel and several Arab states. Trump signed the Bahrain–Israel declaration as a witness.

The agreement marked a change from Bahrain’s formal participation in Arab boycotts of Israel, dating from 1948, to an openly acknowledged bilateral relationship. Before 2020, contacts between Israel and Gulf states had developed largely outside formal diplomatic channels. Bahrain and Israel had never fought each other on a battlefield and share no border. Their agreement therefore centered on establishing relations and building cooperation, rather than ending a war between them. A joint communiqué signed in Manama on October 18, 2020, formally established diplomatic, peaceful and friendly relations. That communiqué was a framework for bilateral ties, not a peace treaty.

Normalization brought embassies, ambassadors, direct flights and agreements among government departments within reach. It also gave businesses, professional groups and civil society organizations a way to work openly across the two countries. Bahrain’s decision did not depend on a wider Arab settlement: during the 2020 normalization debate, the Arab League recognized each member state’s authority to decide its own relations with Israel. Bahrain exercised that authority to pursue diplomatic, commercial and security ties.

Background

Bahrain’s earlier boycott belonged to the wider Arab response to Israel’s establishment in 1948. It restricted official relations even though Bahrain, an island kingdom in the Persian Gulf, had no common frontier with Israel and had not fought it directly. Quiet Gulf contacts with Israel preceded the Abraham Accords, but they did not provide the public diplomatic structure needed for routine travel, government agreements or reciprocal embassies. The 2020 declaration moved the Bahrain–Israel relationship into an official framework that both governments could develop in public.

The agreement differed from Israel’s earlier peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan. The Egypt–Israel peace treaty of 1979 followed wars between the two countries and addressed the military and territorial consequences of armed conflict. The Israel–Jordan peace treaty of 1994 also settled matters arising from a history of battlefield confrontation. Bahrain’s 2020 agreement, by contrast, began a direct relationship between states that had not fought one another. Its emphasis fell on recognition, diplomacy and future cooperation across civilian and security fields.

Security concerns supplied an important setting for Bahrain’s decision. The Iranian regime had historically claimed sovereignty over Bahrain, and Bahraini authorities feared its influence over the kingdom’s Shia majority. Tensions with Iran rose after Bahrain normalized relations with Israel. Bahrain also hosts the United States Navy’s Fifth Fleet, making Gulf maritime security and cooperation with Washington central to its strategic position. Relations with Israel offered Bahrain another channel for addressing regional threats while retaining its longstanding American security partnership.

The White House ceremony placed Bahrain’s decision within a broader regional initiative. Bahrain signed on the same day as the United Arab Emirates, with the United States hosting both delegations and promoting the Abraham Accords. Bahrain’s declaration with Israel identified sovereignty, peaceful relations and mutual benefit as guiding principles. It called for work on investment, tourism, direct flights, security, telecommunications, technology, energy, health care, culture and the environment. The parties also agreed to pursue reciprocal embassies, turning the ceremony’s commitments into the basis for a continuing diplomatic relationship.

Terms

The September declaration committed Bahrain and Israel to establish full diplomatic relations, promote lasting security, avoid threats and the use of force, and advance coexistence. It outlined fields in which officials would seek more detailed agreements. Those commitments framed normalization as a continuing process: diplomatic representation would allow ministries to communicate directly, while agreements on transport and commerce would make private travel and business possible. The declaration thanked the United States for facilitating the diplomatic opening and recorded Trump’s role as host and witness.

Officials gave the relationship a more detailed structure at a meeting in Manama on October 18, 2020. Their joint communiqué established diplomatic, peaceful and friendly relations. Bahrain and Israel accompanied it with agreements covering economic and trade cooperation, civil aviation, finance, communications and postal services, agriculture, cooperation between their foreign ministries, and visa exemptions for holders of diplomatic and other specified official passports. Together, these measures provided working channels for government departments and removed practical barriers to official contact. The communiqué’s legal character remained distinct from the earlier Egypt–Israel and Israel–Jordan peace treaties.

The October agreements also connected broad diplomatic goals to ordinary activities. Civil aviation cooperation supported travel between the two countries. Economic and financial arrangements gave businesses and officials subjects for direct negotiation, while communications and postal cooperation addressed services needed for sustained contact. Agricultural cooperation opened another field for joint work. Exemptions for diplomatic travel eased official visits. These provisions mattered because normalization required more than public recognition: officials, companies and travelers needed procedures through which relations could function.

Implementation

Israel’s Knesset approved the joint communiqué on November 10, 2020, by a vote of 62–14. Its approval advanced Israel’s formal adoption of the diplomatic relationship established in Manama. During 2021, both countries named their first ambassadors: Bahrain’s first ambassador to Israel presented his credentials in September, and Israel named its first ambassador to Bahrain that month. The exchange gave each government a resident diplomatic channel for maintaining relations and pursuing the agreements signed in 2020.

Direct flights made travel between Israel and Bahrain possible and created opportunities for entrepreneurs, financiers and consultants to meet in person. Bahrain launched a business council to develop trade and investment with Israelis. Economic contact extended beyond initial plans: regulators from the two countries concluded a financial technology cooperation agreement in 2023. Public events also made the relationship visible. Israel’s ambassador to the United States attended a Bahraini National Day celebration hosted by Bahrain’s ambassador in Washington, an encounter made possible by their governments’ openly established ties.

Health measures offered another practical example. In 2021, Bahrain and Israel agreed to recognize each other’s digital COVID-19 vaccination certificates, becoming the first countries to make such a reciprocal arrangement. Qualifying travelers could enter the other country without quarantine and use certificates to access venues governed by local health rules. The arrangement linked diplomatic recognition to a specific benefit for travelers at a time when pandemic restrictions complicated international visits.

Cooperation also developed in security. Israeli and Bahraini officials advanced intelligence and defense contacts after normalization, and Israel’s defense minister signed a security memorandum with Bahrain in 2022. The memorandum provided a framework for intelligence cooperation, joint exercises and work between their defense industries. Israel’s national security adviser also addressed the IISS Manama Dialogue during the relationship’s early years. Bahrain’s hosting of the U.S. Fifth Fleet gave these contacts added strategic importance amid threats from the Iranian regime. Bahrain later pursued renewed diplomatic contact with Iran while maintaining cooperation with Israel.

Cybersecurity became another area of bilateral work. Following official exchanges in 2021, the countries developed an agreement for cooperation on cyber operations, research and development, and the sharing and protection of information. Israeli and Bahraini cyber officials subsequently appeared together in a public regional forum with counterparts from other Abraham Accords states. By the accords’ fifth anniversary in 2025, cybersecurity and defense remained parts of the Bahrain–Israel partnership.

The relationship also drew in people outside government. A September 17, 2021, ceremony marking the Abraham Accords’ first anniversary included Bahraini and Israeli representatives participating virtually. In September 2023, an Abraham Accords delegation of Arab and Israeli civil society and business leaders met members of the United States House Abraham Accords Caucus. Its participants worked in environmental, cultural and tourism fields. Bahrain’s ambassador to the United States hosted an anniversary reception that month, attended by Foreign Minister al-Zayani, who expressed support for a more connected Middle East.

Significance

The Bahrain–Israel agreement showed how an Arab state could establish direct relations with Israel through a sovereign bilateral decision. It replaced formal boycott with diplomatic representation and opened channels for travel, trade, public contact and security cooperation. Alongside the United Arab Emirates agreement, it widened the circle of states with formal ties to Israel beyond Egypt and Jordan. Bahrain’s experience also provided a point of reference for subsequent normalization initiatives, including the Israel–Sudan normalization agreement.

Relations cooled under domestic pressure in Bahrain during the Gaza war. Diplomatic contact became less visible, but the 2020 agreement did not disappear. Bahrain’s foreign minister received the credentials of a new Israeli ambassador in August 2025, demonstrating that formal channels remained available. Bahrain’s pursuit of contact with Iran likewise did not end its security cooperation with Israel. The relationship’s course through 2025 showed both the effects of regional conflict on public diplomacy and the durability of arrangements in fields such as cybersecurity and defense.

The agreement’s lasting importance lies in the institutions and contacts it enabled. Its declaration set out the decision to normalize; the Manama communiqué established diplomatic relations; and later agreements gave officials and citizens ways to use them. Business councils, flights, ambassadors, health arrangements and security memoranda turned a White House signing into an operating bilateral relationship. Even as political pressure affected its visibility, Bahrain and Israel retained the means to cooperate directly on shared practical and strategic concerns.