TheNewsGuru

Tag: Bahrain

  • Int’l Relations: Bahrain, Qatar end diplomatic feud, restore ties

    Int’l Relations: Bahrain, Qatar end diplomatic feud, restore ties

    The Gulf nations of  Qatar and Bahrain have announced an end to their age-long diplomatic row since 2017.

    Both countries have now re-established diplomatic relations six years after both countries severed relations.

    Recall that Bahrain in 2017 joined Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt in imposing a diplomatic blockade on Qatar. The countries’ rivalry goes back even further, however, and Bahrain is the last to renew ties.

    Agreement on the reconciliation was reached in talks at the Gulf Cooperation Council headquarters in Saudi Arabia, Qatar’s foreign ministry said.

    Bahrain had been the last holdout of four Arab nations that imposed a boycott and blockade on Qatar in 2017. They were angered by Qatar’s support for Islamist groups that rose to power in some countries following the 2011 Arab Spring protests, which the other autocratic nations viewed as terrorist organizations.

    The blockade was lifted at the start of 2021, and Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt have restored ties with Qatar since then, with top leaders paying official visits in recent months.

    Bahrain and Qatar each issued official statements announcing the decision to restore relations following a meeting between their delegations at the headquarters of the Gulf Cooperation Council, a six-nation bloc of which both are members, in the Saudi capital of Riyadh.

    The neighbours “decided to restore diplomatic relations between the two countries according to the principles of the United Nations charter”, said a foreign ministry statement.

    “The two sides affirmed that this step stems from the mutual desire to develop bilaterally
    relations and enhance Gulf unity and integration,” it added.

    Bahrain’s foreign ministry released a similar statement, the country’s state news agency reported.

    Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt imposed a blockade in 2017, accusing Qatar of supporting extremist organisations in the region and becoming too close to Iran.

  • Pope Francis makes first papal trip to Bahrain

    Pope Francis makes first papal trip to Bahrain

    Pope Francis is making the first-ever papal trip to Bahrain this week, sparking calls from the country’s majority Shia opposition and human rights activists for the pontiff to raise human rights concerns in the small island nation.

    The island off the coast of Saudi Arabia is ruled by a Sunni monarchy that violently quashed 2011 Arab Spring protests there with the aid of allies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

    In the years since, Bahrain has imprisoned Shia activists, deported others, stripped hundreds of their citizenship, banned the largest Shia opposition group and closed down its leading independent newspaper.

    “There’s a huge elephant in the room in this situation,” said Devin Kenney, Amnesty International’s Bahrain researcher.

    “The watchwords of this visit are coexistence and dialogue and the Bahraini government suppresses civil and political freedoms, without which coexistence and dialogue cannot be sustained.”

    Bahrain maintains it respects human rights and freedom of speech, despite facing repeated criticism by local and international rights activists, as well as UN human rights special rapporteurs.

    Francis is making the visit to participate in a government-sponsored conference on East-West dialogue and to minister to Bahrain’s tiny Catholic community, part of his effort to pursue dialogue with the Muslim world.