Bahraini Foreign Minister Visits Tehran for Second Time in 30 Days

Bahrain's foreign minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani visited Tehran on Sunday for the second time in a month, as the two countries prepare to resume their diplomatic ties after an eight-year hiatus.

The Bahraini top diplomat, who is in Tehran to participate in the Asian Cooperation Dialogue summit, met his Iranian counterpart Ali Bagheri Kani to discuss resumption of bilateral relations, eight years after Manama severed its ties with Tehran.

Bahrain's foreign minister and his Iranian counterpart agreed to establish "the mechanisms required for initiating talks aimed at resuming political relations between the two countries" during their meeting in Tehran, a joint statement released by the two countries reads.

The Bahraini foreign minister visited Tehran last month to attend a farewell ceremony held for Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi after he was killed in a helicopter crash.

Now his second visit to Tehran comes one month after Bahrain's king expressed a tentative willingness to resume diplomatic ties with Iran despite historical tensions and accusations against Tehran for inciting unrest within Bahrain’s Shi'ite majority.

Tiny but geopolitically significant Bahrain, hosting the US Navy's Fifth Fleet, has repeatedly accused Iran of destabilizing efforts by fueling dissent among its Shi'ite population against the ruling Sunni monarchy. The 2011 protests, a part of the broader Arab Spring movement, were suppressed by the government, with Iran being partly blamed for the upheaval—a charge Iran has consistently denied.

The kingdom has a long-standing alignment with US and UK interests, notably highlighted by its sole Persian Gulf state endorsement of the strikes against the Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen following their Red Sea confrontations earlier this year.