Sunday, 11 January 2015

Bahrain summons Lebanese envoy over 'hostile' Nasrallah speech


BEIRUT: Bahrain summoned Sunday Lebanon's chargé d’affaires over “hostile statements” made by Hezbollah chief Hasan Nasrallah in a speech two days earlier, Bahrain's state-run news agency said.


Undersecretary for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Abdullah Abdullatif Abdullah called on Lebanese chargé d'affaires Elias Assaf to condemn “hostile statements made by terrorist organization Hezbollah's secretary-general,” and to take legal measures against him, the Bahrain News Agency said Sunday.


Abdullah said Nasrallah’s criticism of the recent arrest of Bahrain's opposition leader hinders relations between the two countries and constitutes an interference in the internal affairs of Bahrain and the Gulf Cooperation Council.


In a televised speech Friday, Nasrallah denounced Bahrain’s Dec. 28 arrest of Sheikh Ali Salman, head of the al-Wefaq Islamic Society, the country's main political opposition group.


Salman was arrested on Dec. 28 after leading a protest against elections in November which his party boycotted, and subsequently charged with inciting a change of government by force, inciting hatred, inciting others to break the law and publicly insulting the Interior Ministry.


“The arrest implies that the Bahraini authorities have reach a dead end, and that all its attempts [to quell protests] have failed,” Nasrallah said in his speech.


“The people of Bahrain are calling for rights, and legitimate rights that no one can deny,” Nasrallah said. “The most basic of the rights include an elected parliament that the people elect and not a parliament half of whose members are appointed.”


The Hezbollah chief also likened the situation in Bahrain to that in Palestine, saying that the country’s native populations are being marginalized by an influx of foreigners into the country.


He noted that authorities are naturalizing Sunnis from across the region to change the country’s majority-Shiite demographic, who form the bulk of the opposition.


Bahrain deemed the remarks intolerable, saying they constituted an incitement to violence and terrorism, the BNA said.


Bahrain has been in turmoil since 2011 when authorities crushed a pro-democracy movement. Protests have continued to rock the small island kingdom since the outbreak of the uprising, with multiple attempts at dialogue between the regime and opposition failing to hold.



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