Israel 0
14 February 2019

Prime Minister Netanyahu's office posted, then removed, a video clip taken during the Ministerial to Promote a Future of Peace and Security in the Middle East showing senior officials from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE criticising Iran. These comments included Bahrain's foreign minister suggesting that "we grew up talking about the Israel-Palestine issue as the most important issue... 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". "This is the challenge we have to face in order to deal with other challenges", the foreign minister added. The footage also showed a senior Saudi official concluding with respect to Iran that "any attempt to be nice to them, if anything, encourages them rather then discourages them".  

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