Bahraini opposition figure describes Al-Khalifa talks offer as “Propaganda”
di Redazione
(FNA) – A senior Bahraini opposition figure dismissed the Al-Khalifa regime’s offer of talks with the country’s dissidents as a propaganda campaign to fix its unpopular image.
“By holding fruitless talks, the Al-Khalifa regime wants to pretend that it is negotiating with the opposition, while continued crackdowns and killings of the people indicates the unpopular nature of this regime”, Deputy Secretary-General of Bahrain’s National Democratic Action Society Hassan Al-Marzooq told the Arabic-language Al-Alam TV channel on Tuesday.
He further viewed the Bahraini rulers’ offer of talks as nothing more than a trick, implying that the Manama regime wants to fix its image among the public and meantime buy time to continue its crimes and suppressions.
Earlier this month, another senior Bahraini opposition figure also dismissed talks between the al-Khalifa regime and the country’s dissidents as to be meaningless at a time when Bahrain’s political leaders and main opposition figures are in jail.
“All dissidents are in prison, political leaders are either in solitary confinement or under house arrest while the Saudi forces have the country still under their occupation and in such an atmosphere negotiation is meaningless”, Rashed al-Rashed, a leader of Bahrain’s Amal Movement, told FNA.
“There are no national reconciliation talks in Bahrain and what is going on is a propaganda attempt by the regime”, he added.
He noted that the al-Khalifa regime has lost its legitimacy, and hence the talks offer lacks credibility.
Also earlier this month, a spokesman for the February 14 Youth Movement – a main opposition to the Manama regime – said that the al-Khalifa regime is no longer qualified to rule Bahrain due to the scope of crimes that it has committed so far, and added that the country’s revolutionaries are left with no other option but to topple the regime.
“We call on people to continue their protests and not to be deceived by the al-Khalifa plots. The people of Bahrain have a clear and single goal. Al-Khalifa is no longer qualified to rule the country due to the crimes it has committed and after the Saudi forces entered the country”, Abdulrao’uf al-Shaeb told FNA.
“I believe that the Bahraini revolutionaries are quite vigilant about the continuation of the revolution and the necessity for bringing substantial changes and these talks have not influenced their movements and protests, but it has inflamed the revolution’s flames and has made the people more determined to continue their path to the overthrow of the Al-Khalifa regime”, he added.
Anti-government protesters have been holding peaceful demonstrations across Bahrain since mid-February 2011, calling for an end to the al-Khalifa dynasty’s over-40-year rule, end of discrimination, establishment of justice and a democratically-elected government as well as freedom of detained protesters.
Violence against the defenseless people escalated after a Saudi-led conglomerate of police, security and military forces from the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) member states – Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar – were dispatched to the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom on March 13, 2011, to help Manama crack down on peaceful protestors.
So far, tens of people have been killed, hundreds have gone missing and thousands of others have been injured.
