Bahrain's embassy in Israel is currently without an ambassador, following a royal decree on Tuesday that reassigned Ambassador Khaled Yousef Al-Jalahma to a senior post at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The move, announced in Decree No. 21 of 2025 by King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, appoints Al-Jalahma as undersecretary for political affairs. No replacement ambassador to Israel has been named.
Al-Jalahma, Bahrain’s first envoy to Israel, had been appointed in March 2021 and formally took up his post in Tel Aviv that August. His appointment came in the wake of the 2020 Abraham Accords, a US-brokered agreement that normalized relations between Israel and several Arab states, including Bahrain.
Since the Hamas-led October 7 attacks on Israel, Al-Jalahma has not returned to Tel Aviv. He was recalled shortly after the outbreak of the war, and Bahrain has made no official announcements regarding the status of his post or its diplomatic engagement with Israel.
While the embassy has not been formally closed, its ambassadorial leadership has been left vacant, casting uncertainty over the future of bilateral relations.
Despite this diplomatic silence, Bahrain has not formally withdrawn from the Abraham Accords. Still, tensions over the war in Gaza have strained ties between Israel and several Arab signatories to the agreement, including the United Arab Emirates and Morocco.
The Bahraini government has yet to indicate whether a new ambassador will be appointed or whether the current diplomatic freeze will become permanent.
