A senior Bahraini foreign ministry official publicly said on Sunday that Israel’s Mossad is active in Bahrain.

“There’s intelligence cooperation between Bahrain and Israel,” the undersecretary for the foreign ministry, Sheikh Abdullah bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, said at the Munich Security Conference during a session with Defense Minister Benny Gantz called “Abraham Accords and Peace Options.”

” Mossad is in Bahrain and they’re present in the region,” Khalifah began.

The skeptical moderator then interrupted the discussion and asked: “Are you making comments or are you being sarcastic? I just want to make sure that everyone understands.”

“If you allow me to finish, please,” Khalifah asserted.

“If this security cooperation between Bahrain and Israel would mean providing more stability and security, so be it,” he continued. “If it would mean saving the lives of innocent civilians, so be it.”

“That is why, during a number of visits for the head of the Mossad to Bahrain, it was publicly announced in the Bahrain news agency, probably before the first time, it was announced back in September 2020, and in May 2021 – that yes, the head of the Mossad was received by his counterpart in Bahrain.”

“So we do believe security cooperation, intelligence cooperation, is part of our ongoing partnership between Bahrain and Israel and will continue,” Khalifah concluded.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett visited Bahrain last week, and earlier this month, Defense Minister Benny Gantz visited the kingdom and signed a memorandum of understanding with his Bahraini counterpart to “to help advance intelligence cooperation, a framework for exercises, and cooperation between the countries’ defense industries.”

The island country of Bahrain shares a maritime border with Iran, and like Israel, views Iran as a major threat. The Sunni minority leadership fears Iran’s influence over the Shiite majority in the country, a real threat since Iran has backed revolutionary groups in the Kingdom over the years.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)