“It just didn’t seem possible,” Nonoo told me from Manama, the capital city where he lives with his wife.

Tuesday’s signing of the normalisation agreements in Washington — called the Abraham Accords — is expected to open up routes for collaboration, trade and travel between Bahrain and Israel, which had all been restricted.

It will have a significant impact on Bahrain’s Jews, many of whom have relatives in Israel they have not been able to visit.

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