Bahrain Mirror: Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al-Zayani met with his American counterpart Antony Blinken on Thursday, July 20, 2023 in Washington as part of the third strategic dialogue between the United States of America and Bahrain, as the countries renewed their commitment to "strengthen the work of the Negev Forum to normalize relations with the occupation entity" and their commitment to what they called "deterring and confronting threats to the Kingdom of Bahrain."

Bahrain and the United States reaffirmed a commitment to furthering regional cooperation within the Negev Forum working groups, especially the regional security and health working groups that Bahrain and the United States co-chair.

The United States and Bahrain reaffirmed "their commitment to freedom of navigation in international waters, noting especially the importance of ensuring safe passage for commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and condemned acts that put free navigation in jeopardy." The United States and Bahrain reiterated their shared commitment to deterring and confronting threats to the Kingdom of Bahrain and enhancing regional peace and security.  

It is worth noting that the "Negev Forum" currently includes the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, Egypt, the occupation entity and the United States. A summit of the Forum countries at the level of foreign ministers was supposed to be held in Morocco in July 2023, before the Moroccan side announced its postponement, according to the "Russia Today" channel.

The Bahraini foreign minister met on Friday, July 21, 2023, Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism at the US Department of State in Washington and Ambassador Daniel Shapiro, US State Department's Senior Advisor for Regional Integration.

A statement issued by the Bahraini Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Al-Zayani discussed with Lipstadt and Shapiro "the long-standing Bahrain-US friendship relations, as well as ways to bolster bilateral cooperation to achieve common interests, as well as areas of cooperation in the field of promoting the values of tolerance and human coexistence among various religions, beliefs and cultures, confronting the ideology of fanaticism, extremism and hatred."

Al-Zayani also met with members from the US Commission on International Religious Freedom and discussed "areas of cooperation between the Foreign Affairs Ministry and USCIRF in promoting religious freedom globally, in addition to promoting tolerance and human coexistence for the good and benefit of humanity."

Arabic Version