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Bahrain to host Israel delegation at UN meeting

June 19, 2018 at 11:33 am

UNESCO meeting room [Cancillería Ecuador/Wikipedia]

A Bahraini official announced that an Israeli delegation will participate in a meeting of the World Heritage Committee organised by UNESCO and hosted by his country from 24 June to 4 July.

In a statement to the Bahraini Akhbar Al-Khaleej newspaper on Sunday, Mounir Bouchenaki, the World Heritage Advisor to the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities (BACA), said that “there is an Israeli delegation which will attend these meetings because this is an international meeting and UNESCO is organising it, and the Kingdom of Bahrain is just the host of the meeting.”

He claimed that “any state in the United Nations has the right to participate in these meetings”, pointing out that “in return there is a Palestinian delegation which will also participate in the meetings.”

The Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities said on its website that the meeting will be held under the auspices of King Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa.

Read: UAE and Bahrain normalising with the occupation

Bahrain has no official diplomatic ties with Israel however officials have often come out to defend the occupation authority’s “right to defend itself” against Palestinians protesters.

A Bahraini sports delegation also took part in the Giro d’Italia in May even though it was held in occupied Jerusalem under Israeli auspices.