The Manama Dialogue is an annual global security and geopolitical conference held annually since 2004 [1] in the Kingdom of Bahrain under the auspices of the International Institute for Strategic Studies and the Ministry Foreign Affairs in Manama, Bahrain.
The 20th IISS Manama Dialogue took place 6-8 December 2024.
During the November 2023 Manama Dialogue conference the topics ranging from governance in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic to the Gaza war feature on the agenda; the heads of ministries from around the globe frequently attend, as do business leaders. [2] [3] [4] [5]
During the December 2024 Manama Dialogue conference the topic of the resurgence of rebel forces in Syria was discussed; in fact, the Assad regime fell while the conference was ongoing. [6] Anne Neuberger, American deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technology told reporters that the Salt Typhoon campaign was a "focused" operation, recording high-level people in politics for espionage purposes. [7]
In 2025, the BDS Movement and the Gulf Coalition Against Normalization (an umbrella organization of pro-Palestine groups in the Arab Gulf states) [8] called for a boycott of the Manama Dialogue until it stops hosting Israeli officials and representatives of Zionist lobby organizations like AIPAC. [9] [10] Israeli involvement in the conference began after the Bahraini government joined the Abraham Accords in 2020. [11]
The reason Mr Falconer raised the issue was because of the Syrian regime's track record of using chemical weapons during the civil war.