Mossad chief visits Bahrain and meets with security officials

2nd October 2020: Mossad chief visits Bahrain for important meetings with security officials.

Baaghi TV: Joseph (UC) Cohen, the head of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, has visited Bahrain and talked with the top security officials of a small Gulf state in Manama.

Bahrain’s state-run news agency BNA announced his visit on Thursday. Mr Cohen met with Adil bin Khalifa al-Fadl, head of Bahrain’s National Intelligence Service, and Sheikh Ahmed bin Abdulaziz al-Khalifa, head of the Strategic Security Service.

According to the BNA report, “The two sides discussed issues of mutual interest and stressed the importance of the peace agreement between Bahrain and Israel. Also, what role will this agreement play in peace and stability in the region and what opportunities will it create for cooperation between the two countries?

Bahrain and Israel signed a landmark peace agreement at the White House in Washington on September 15 to establish normal relations. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself travelled to the United States to sign peace agreements with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, accompanied by Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed and Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdul Latif al-Zayani.

Following the agreement, Netanyahu said that once normal relations were established between Israel and Bahrain, direct flights would now be operated and air traffic between the two countries would be restored soon.

It should be noted that Mossad leaders, including the Israeli Prime Minister, have visited Arab countries several times before. The Israeli Prime Minister paid a secret visit to the United Arab Emirates in 2018 with the Mossad chief.

Following the formal announcement of the establishment of relations between the two countries, it has been revealed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the head of Mossad paid a secret visit to the UAE in 2018 and met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed.

Israeli website Ynet quoted a report in the Hebrew-language newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth as saying that Netanyahu was accompanied by Mossad chief Yossi Cohen during his 2018 visit to the United Arab Emirates.

The report claimed that Mossad It was he who arranged the meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates.

Citing diplomatic sources, the report said that the meeting was a success and that the two sides maintained close ties since then.