Bahrain FM says confronting Iranian more pressing than Israeli-Palestinian conflict

WARSAW, Poland — Bahraini Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa on Wednesday said confronting Iranian aggression is more pressing than solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“We grew up talking about the Israel-Palestine issue as the most important issue” that has to be “solved, one way or another,” he said at the opening gala of the Warsaw Middle East conference.

“But then, at a later stage we saw a bigger challenge, we saw a more toxic one, in fact the more toxic one in our history, that came from the Islamic Republic,” he said, according to a video of the event sent to Israeli reporters by the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

If it wasn’t for Iran’s malign activities in the region, “we would have been much closer today in solving this issue with Israel,” Khalifa added, with Netanyahu looking on.

“But this is a serious challenge that is preventing us now from moving forward anywhere, be it Syria, be it Yemen, be it Iraq, be it anywhere.”

At the same panel, the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, indicated that Israel is justified in attacking Iranian targets in Syria.

“Every nation has the right to defend itself, when it’s challenged by another nation, yes,” he responds to a questions by the moderator, former US Middle East peace negotiator Dennis Ross, about Israeli strikes on Syria.

— Raphael Ahren