Manama
In a statement, Bahrain promises allowing “all flights coming to and departing from the United Arab Emirates” to cross through the island kingdom’s airspace. This follows after neighboring Saudi Arabia issued a similar announcement.
The state-run Bahrain News Agency (BNA) made the announcement without directly naming Israel, just as Saudi Arabia had. However, the announcement late Thursday came just days after the kingdom allowed the first direct Israeli commercial passenger flight to use its airspace to reach the UAE.
Flights between Bahrain and the UAE now skirt just north of Qatari airspace as Doha remains banned from the airspace of boycotting nations amid a yearslong political dispute. Iranian flights to the UAE similarly don’t need to enter the airspace of Bahrain, an island nation just off the coast of Saudi Arabia in the Persian Gulf.–AP
