Bahrain

10 Sep 2021; MEMO: Bahrain's national airline, Gulf Air, will for the first time launch direct flights to Israel's Tel Aviv on 30 September, the carrier said in a Twitter post yesterday, Reuters reports.

"We are excited to announce that we will be flying to Tel Aviv starting 30 September 2021 with two weekly flights," the tweet said.

Dubai, Aug 21 (AP-PTI) The island kingdom of Bahrain has said it is allowing flights to make use of Bahrain's transit facilities amid the evacuations of Afghanistan.

The kingdom made the announcement in a statement released early Saturday.

01 Apr 2021; MEMO: Bahrain has appointed its first ambassador to Israel and has set up its diplomatic mission there according to a royal decree issued on Tuesday.

The envoy was named as Khaled Yousif Al-Jalahma who formerly was director of operations at Bahrain's Foreign Ministry and was deputy chief of mission at Bahrain's Embassy in the US before that.

25 Mar 2021; MEMO: Bahrain was the first-ever Arab state to not vote for the UNHRC motion condemning Israeli violations against Palestinians in the occupied territories, Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported on Wednesday.

Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported Al-Mayadeen TV channel naming Bahrain as the Arab country that did not vote, as it did not attend the voting session.

16 Jan 2021; MEMO: A January shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to the Gulf state of Bahrain will not arrive on time, the ministry of health said on Saturday, but second doses of the jab already scheduled will not be affected, reports Reuters.

The small island state of Bahrain has the third-highest rate of vaccinations per capita in the world so far, according to the Our World in Data website, which is run by an Oxford University research programme.

27 Dec 2020; MEMO: Gulf Arab foreign ministers will hold a virtual meeting hosted by Bahrain on Sunday ahead of an annual summit to discuss steps towards ending a diplomatic row that has undermined regional stability and thwarted Washington's efforts to form a united front against Iran, reports Reuters.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Bahrain said Sunday it approved the use of a Chinese coronavirus vaccine, following its earlier approval of a vaccine made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech.

Separately, Kuwait has granted emergency use for the Pfizer vaccine.

Bahrain’s state-run news agency said the Sinopharm vaccine would be available in the island kingdom off the coast of Saudi Arabia in the Persian Gulf.

26 Nov 2020; MEMO: Bahrain's industry minister on Wednesday met with the chairman of Israel's trade promotion agency and the chief executive of Israel's largest bank Hapoalim, Reuters reports.

The Gulf kingdom's state news agency reported Zayed bin Rashid Al-Zayani met with International Cooperation Institute Chairman Adiv Baruch and other members of a visiting Israeli trade delegation.

18 Nov 2020; MEMO: Bahrain's first official government delegation to Israel set off on Wednesday on the first Gulf Air commercial flight to Tel Aviv, as the two countries look to broaden cooperation after establishing formal ties in September in a US-brokered accord.

Gulf Air flight GF972 – a reference to Israel's telephone country code – took off from Manama airport in the morning bound for Tel Aviv, according to flight-tracking website FlightRadar24.

11 Nov 2020; MEMO: Bahrain's Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa has died, the royal palace announced on Wednesday on Twitter.

Sheikh Khalifa passed away on Wednesday morning at Mayo Clinic hospital in the United States, Bahrain's state news agency said.

The burial ceremony will take place upon the repatriation of his body and the funeral will be limited to a specific number of relatives, the statement said.

Official mourning has been declared for a week.