Bahrain Mirror: Israel and Bahrain announced on Sunday signing a memorandum of understanding: "Fight Iran in the war of ideas."  Reactions on the agreement varied. What is Tel Aviv's aim of this cooperation and why has it chosen Bahrain in particular?

In this context, Ashraf Al-Ajrami, a Palestinian researcher specialized in Israeli affairs and former minister, told the Russian Sputnik agency that "The memorandum of understanding signed between Israel and Bahrain on cooperation in the war of ideas against Iran is actually intelligence related." "Tel Aviv is looking for an advanced base to spy on Iran in the Gulf region as part of so-called research and technology," he explained.

"Israel is looking for an opportunity to get all the information about Iran, on the security, economic and political levels. This is exactly the content of the memorandums of cooperation and understanding signed with Arab countries in the Gulf," he said.

Al-Ajrami went on to say that Israel and its political actors boast of their relations with Arab countries. Its aim behind these memorandums is to show its people and the Israeli audience that its relations are deep with these states and that it works on everything that concerns its people and strategic interests.

He added: "It is also a kind of promotion of the achievements of the political community in Tel Aviv, and this is the general framework for bragging and speaking on all the details of the agreements with the Arab countries. It wants to encourage other Arab countries to go towards normalizing relations with it, considering that they also serve the Arab countries, within the framework of security alliance between Israel and Arab countries, especially the Gulf states, to counter what they call the 'Iranian threat'."

As for choosing Bahrain in particular for such agreements, the expert in Israeli Affairs said, "Bahrain in particular has a serious problem with Iran. Manama accuses Tehran of interfering in its affairs more than any other Gulf country, especially with a majority of the population belonging to the Shiite sect, noting the Bahraini authorities have a problem with that Shiite majority."

On the other hand, the Iranian political analyst, Dr. Hossein Ruioran, said that "bringing in Israel as an enemy state of Iran is not in the interest of Bahrain or regional security, because Israel is a threat from Tehran's point of view, and bringing it to the region is an act of aggression."

Arabic Version