Two senior officers went to dive in Rosh Hanikra, or Ras al-Nakora in Arabic, as al-Khalifa called it.
Dr. Sheikh Abdullah bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, Bahrain’s Under-Secretary for International Relations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Diving with Alon Ushpiz, Director-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Photographer: Putskar Dive Club)Ushpiz tweeted a video of himself and Al Khalifa waving the flags of their countries underwater.
cnxps.cmd.push(function () { cnxps({ playerId: ’36af7c51-0caf-4741-9824-2c941fc6c17b’ }).render(‘4c4d856e0e6f4e3d808bbc1715e132f6’); });
if(window.location.pathname.indexOf(“656089”) != -1){document.getElementsByClassName(“divConnatix”)[0].style.display =”none”;}else if(window.location.pathname.indexOf(“/israel-news/”) != -1){ document.getElementsByClassName(“divConnatix”)[0].style.display = “none”; var script = document.createElement(‘script’); script.src=”https://player.anyclip.com/anyclip-widget/lre-widget/prod/v1/src/lre.js”; script.setAttribute(‘pubname’, ‘jpostcom’); script.setAttribute(‘widgetName’, ‘0011r00001lcD1i_12258’); document.getElementsByClassName(‘divAnyClip’)[0].appendChild(script);}
— Alon Ushpiz (@AlonUshpiz) August 9, 2021
“We took advantage of the rare opportunity of diplomatic etiquette underwater. One knows it’s a true friendship when your partner in peace is your dive buddy,” Ushpiz wrote.
Al Khalifa, an avid diver, said the site was on his “diving list”. He is a licensed scuba instructor who frequently goes for deep sea dives off the coast of Bahrain.
Dr. Sheikh Abdullah bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, Bahrain’s Under-Secretary for International Relations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Diving with Alon Ushpiz, Director-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Photographer: Putskar Dive Club)Bahrain officials are in Israel for the third time, this time on a four-day visit, which includes meetings with President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
Official diplomatic relations between Israel and Bahrain were announced on September 11, 2020 in the framework of the Ibrahim Agreement, a mostly behind-the-scenes ties.
Al Khalifa and Ushpiz worked to prepare for a final meeting between Lapid and Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al Zayani, under the auspices of a Steering Committee for Relations between Bahrain and Israel, which they lead.
Al Khalifa also holds the rank of Deputy Secretary-General of the Supreme Defense Council and Under Secretary for Political Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bahrain, and is in charge of the Israel portfolio in the ministry.
A full interview with Al Khalifa will be published in Thursday’s Jerusalem Post.