MANAMA, Jan 29 (AFP) - The first high-level, two-way meeting by Bahraini and Israeli officials took place Saturday during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Bahrain's GNA news agency reported.
Historically, Arab leaders refused to hold meetings publicly with Israeli leaders in protest of Israel's occupation of Palestine in 1948. But many Arab leaders did hold such meetings in private. Since the early 1990s, public meetings have become commonplace.
The meeting of Bahraini Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa and Israeli Regional Cooperation Minister Shimon Peres was also the first official bilateral contact between the two countries since 1996, GNA said.
Officials of both countries had attended multilateral talks on regional cooperation in 1996.
Sheikh Salman discussed with Peres "political and regional issues of interest to the two countries and reiterated Bahrain's support for the advancement of the peace process on all tracks," the agency said.
The crown prince told the former Israeli prime minister of his "desire to see all the sides reach an agreement guaranteeing their legitimate rights."
Peres "stressed Israel's total commitment to the peace process with the Palestinians and all its Arab neighbors," GNA said.
The Israeli minister also said "there was no other alternative for guaranteeing peace and security for the people of the region," the Bahraini news agency added.
Word of the Salman-Peres meeting came after Saudi Arabia, the main Gulf monarchy, announced it would participate in the multilateral Middle East negotiations that resume January 31 in Moscow.
The Gulf monarchies took part in the previous multilateral talks.
Peres visited two of them, Oman and Qatar, in 1995 with then prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.
Peres went again to Qatar in 1997 for a regional economic development conference organized under the rubric of the peace process.
Most Arab countries, including those in the Gulf, boycotted the conference to protest against the lack of movement in the peace process.
