As Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pushes for Arab countries to forge their own deals to recognize Israel, Bahrain indicated it would not be next, saying its position on the need for an independent Palestinian state remains unchanged.
Pompeo’s Middle East tour, which included a stop in the tiny island nation of Bahrain today, comes on the heels of a US-brokered deal to normalize relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. The top US diplomat is lobbying for other countries to follow suit, and the small Gulf kingdom has been floated as a likely candidate.