WASHINGTON (JTA) — Houda Nonoo, the Jewish woman who has served as Bahrain’s U.S. ambassador since 2008, is returning to her native country.

The Bahrain News Agency reported last week that Nonoo, a former lawmaker, would return to Bahrain to work in its Foreign Ministry.

Her appointment had signaled the country’s cultivation of the West, and she routinely appeared at Jewish events in Washington, D.C.

The U.S. 5th Fleet is headquartered in Bahrain, and the Obama administration did not press Bahrain’s leadership as forcefully as other nations swept up in the region’s recent democratization movements.

Bahrain’s modern Jewish community dates to Iraqi merchants who migrated to the area in the late 19th century, but there are Talmudic references to Jews in the area.