Top UAE and Israeli defence officials on Tuesday held their first publicly-acknowledged phone call since their countries' agreement to normalise ties, officials said, heralding possible security cooperation.

Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo will travel to Bahrain to meet the Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, within a tour in the region that includes Sudan, the Emirates and Israel, a statement issued the US Department of State said.

The spiritual leader of Shia majority in Bahrain, Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim, described normalization with Israel a crime, adding that boasting about normalization is "the most detestable in the religion".

Al-Wefaq deputy Secretary-General, Sheikh Hussein Al-Daihi, stressed what he dubbed "Strategic Patience" in order to achieve demands, confirming that "the people of Bahrain are a school for positive patience associated with work throughout their political history, and their movement will end with victory and achieving the great goals they are seeking."

Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, the largest opposition political society, condemned the news circulated on Israeli media outlets about the intention of Israeli Mousad chief to visit Bahrain after his public visit to the Emirates.