Bahrain-Israel normalization deal demonstrates Manama’s submission to US: Islamic Jihad

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad resistance movement has strongly denounced the Israel-Bahrain normalization deal announced by US President Donald Trump, stating that the agreement exhibits the Manama regime’s capitulation to Washington.

“The agreement reflects the US custody of Bahrain. The Bahraini monarch [King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifah] and his government act upon US instructions and orders,” Dawood Shihab, a spokesman for the movement, said in an interview with Lebanon-based and Arabic-language al-Mayadeen television news network on Friday night.

He described the deal as “a new and expected political downfall,” after the Arab League dropped a draft Palestinian resolution condemning the agreement between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel to establish full diplomatic ties, and became a sponsor of departure from Arab consensus, which seeks an end to the Israeli occupation and establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.

In a joint statement earlier in the day, the United States, Bahrain and Israel said the agreement was reached after Trump spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Bahraini king.

The deal comes one month after the UAE and the Tel Aviv regime agreed to normalize ties under a US-brokered deal.

Bahrain will join Israel and the UAE for a signing ceremony at the White House hosted by Trump on September 15. The Israel-UAE ceremony will be attended by Netanyahu and Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Following the announcement of the Israeli-Bahraini normalization deal, Palestine recalled its ambassador to Manama for consultations, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates.

‘Some Arab rulers have linked power grip to Trump’s corrupt administration’

Munir al-Jaghoub, who heads Fatah’s Information Department in the Office of Mobilization and Organization, also slammed Friday’s normalization deal between Israel and Bahrain, lambasting Arab rulers for having attached their continued grip on power to the US administration

“Trump announces a peace agreement between Israel and Bahrain! If Trump asked some Arab rulers to take off their clothes and walk naked in the streets of Tel Aviv, they would agree to do so in the hope that he would be the winner of the upcoming US presidential election. They (Arab rulers) have linked their continued rule to the administration, which wreaks havoc on the earth,” the Palestinian official wrote on his Twitter page.

Jaghoub added the Arabic hashtag “Normalization is Treason” to his post.

Moreover, the February 14 Youth Coalition, named after the date of the beginning of the popular uprising against the ruling Bahraini regime, censured the normalization deal between Manama and Tel Aviv regime as a major betrayal.

The coalition denounced in a statement the “despicable and provocative” step by King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifah as free service to his American master Donald Trump.

“We express our strong rejection and condemnation of the trilateral agreement among the United States, Bahrain and Israel. We hold King Hamad responsible for the consequences of this unwise decision,” it read.

“We assure the Palestinian nation and the rest of the free Arab world that Bahraini people are blameless for this normalization and betrayal. This announcement represents no one other than the despotic Al Khalifah regime, who declared a war on all Muslim and Arab values ​​and principles, and sold their values, honor and the Palestinian cause to Trump and Netanyahu in order to remain in power,” the statement pointed out.

‘Arab regimes rushing towards normalization do not represent their nations’

Separately, Yemen’s popular Houthi Ansarullah movement condemned the leaders of some Arab leader over attempts to normalize diplomatic relations with the Israeli regimes, stressing that the monarchs do not represent their nations and will one day pay a hefty price for their betrayal of the Palestinian cause.

“The Palestinian cause has distanced itself from the burden of regimes, which used to secretly stab it through treachery and now are doing it conspicuously,” it said in a statement on Friday.

The popular Ansarullah movement then voiced its unwavering support for the Bahraini nation in their legitimate struggle to restore dignity and sovereignty, and to divest themselves of dependency, betrayal and tyranny.