Israel might attend maritime conference in Bahrain, dealing with Iran

Israel will send a delegation to attend a maritime security conference in Bahrain on Sunday that will focus on combating Iranian threats to naval security in the Persian Gulf, Channel 13 reported on Saturday.

The conference is a follow-up to a US-initiated conference in Warsaw in February, attended by some 65 countries – including Israel – that focused on the Iranian threat.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman, when asked to confirm whether Israel would indeed be sending a delegation, said that “Israel is participating in the Warsaw process.”

He would not provide any information beyond that comment.

Israeli businessmen and journalists took part in a US-sponsored conference in Bahrain in June to roll out the economic chapter of US President Donald Trump’s long-delayed Middle East peace plan, but an official Israeli government delegation was not invited because the Palestinian Authority boycotted the event, and the Bahrainis did not want an official Israeli delegation there without an official Palestinian one.

In recent months, however, Israel has participated in a number of international conferences in the Persian Gulf, including a conference on the environment in the United Arab Emirates in July and a transportation conference in Oman last November.

The Bahrain maritime security conference was announced in July when Washington’s special envoy for Iran, Brian Hook, and Bahrain’s foreign minister, Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, met in Washington.

Khalifa said at the time the conference would probably take place in autumn to follow up on the Warsaw meeting, and that its aim would be to reach a common understanding on how to deal with the maritime challenges posed by Iran.

Hook said that the same countries that attended the Warsaw conference would attend the meeting in Manama.