Israel is working to promote diplomatic relations with Bahrain, an Israeli official said on Sunday night. The announcement came hours after the visit of Chad President Idriss Deby to Israel. During his meeting with Deby, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said, “A few minutes ago we discussed in my office the great changes that are taking place in the Arab world in its relations with Israel. And this was manifested in my recent visit in Oman with Sultan Qaboos. And there will be more such visits in Arab countries very soon.” “As a leader of an African country, an important African country, a majority of whose population is Muslim, you are coming to Israel to renew our friendship and our relationship. I think it is a testament of what is going to happen with other such countries in Africa as well, and I believe that you are paving the way for many others,” added Netanyahu. Meanwhile on Sunday, Channel 10 News journalist Barak Ravid reported that the Israeli government is in talks with several African nations in a bid to improve relations, one of those nations being Sudan. One of the goals of the talks with African nations is to allow the passage of flights between Israel and Latin America over those countries, first for foreign airlines and eventually for Israeli airlines as well, the report said. Such a move would reduce the flight time to Brazil by about four hours.
