Bahrain first welcomed Israeli cabinet member Yossi Sarid to Manama in 1994. In September 2020, after the United Arab Emirates announced normalizing relations with Israel, Bahrain announced that it would allow all commercial flights coming from Israel to fly over its airspace On 11 September 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that Bahrain and Israel were to normalize relations under the Bahrain–Israel peace agreement. Bahrain's official recognition of the State of Israel followed its GCC neighbour Oman's hosting of the Israeli prime minister in 2018 as well as the UAE's official recognition of the State of Israel in August 2020.  Bahrain's decision was very likely approved in advance by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.