Netanyahu: Israel at threshold of new era of peace

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that he will leave for Washington tonight to sign historic agreements between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

Bahrain on Friday agreed to normalise relations with Israel, becoming the latest Arab nation to do so as part of a broader diplomatic push by US President Donald Trump and his administration to further ease the Jewish state's relative isolation in the Middle East, and find common ground with nations that share US wariness of Iran.

Trump announced the agreement on the 19th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks following a phone call he had with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.

The three leaders also issued a brief joint statement marking the second such Arab normalisation agreement with Israel in the past two months.

The announcement came less than a week before Trump hosts a White House ceremony to mark the establishment of full relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, something that Trump and his Middle East team brokered in August.

Bahrain's foreign minister will attend that event and sign a separate agreement with Netanyahu.