Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz has announced that he had met his Bahrain counterpart publicly during a visit to Washington, the first meeting between the two countries that do not have diplomatic relations.
"Yesterday I met publicly with the Foreign Minister of Bahrain" Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, Katz said in a tweet on Thursday.
Referring to Benjamin Netanyahu, Katz added: "I will continue to work with (the Israeli Prime Minister) to advance Israel's relations with the Gulf countries."
Israel has diplomatic relations with only two Arab countries —Egypt and Jordan -- but common concerns over Iran have brought it closer to Gulf nations in recent years.
In a photograph accompanying the tweet the two foreign ministers appear side by side, smiling.
According to an Israeli Foreign Ministry statement, the "meeting was coordinated behind the scenes by the US State Department as part of a conference on religious liberty organised in Washington by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo".
