Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): In his speech to the United Nations General Assembly, the Bahraini Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdullatif Al-Zayani, lied to the world so effortlessly.

Al-Zayani claimed in his address that "Bahrain has achieved tremendous growth in diplomatic cooperation, human rights, tolerance and social progress."

It is astonishing that the foreign minister of a country whose political prisoners have just suspended a 36-day hunger strike, making simple humanitarian demands, dares to claim before the world to have achieved progress in human rights and tolerance.

In his speech to the annual general debate of the United Nations General Assembly, Al-Zayani referred to the "Agreement on Comprehensive Security Integration and Prosperity between the United States of America and Bahrain," which was signed last week, which will strengthen coordination between the two countries in the fields of defense, security, technology and investment.

However, the truth is that this agreement is concerned in two matters, the first is to protect the rule and the throne of the ruling family, and the second is to fulfill US interests in the region in particular.

Al-Zayani stressed the importance of dialogue and good-neighborliness in the approach to settling international disputes, a peace process supporting an independent Palestinian state, and the solution of conflicts in Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Sudan.

All these statements contradict the policies of the authorities represented by Al-Zayani, as there is no dialogue being held by the authorities neither inside nor outside Bahrain. It also does not practice good neighborliness, as its problems with a number of countries in the region continue, such as Qatar and Iran, and the air line with Iraq is still closed. Furthermore, the Government of Bahrain does not support any peace process in Palestine. It is one of the governments that normalized with Israelis at a bigger scale and one of the most promoters of the normalization project, based on denying the right of the Palestinian people and supporting and strengthening the occupying entity.

Al-Zayani also called for the implementation of international conventions "to criminalize religious, sectarian and racial hate speech," saying "We must prevent the misuse of ‘freedoms' in media and digital platforms for religious contempt or to incite extremism, terrorism and intolerance."

These claims come while serious repression of human rights is rampant in Bahrain, and there's a prevalence of hate speech practiced by the authorities specifically against the Shiites. Bahrainis have read well the words that the police said to prisoners in their recent strike, which confirm that the doctrine of the Ministry of Interior forces is that of hatred of the Shiite community. However, Al-Zayani's speech on preventing the abuse of freedoms is the dictator's constant argument.

A few hours after the Foreign Minister's address to the UN General Assembly, Interior Ministry forces raided the homes of citizens in Abu Saiba and Shakhoura.

The government of Bahrain imposes restrictions on everything, including freedom of expression, association, and assembly, and bars dissidents from running in elections, which happened recently.

The isolation and separation between the people and the government are immense, as the authorities have no relationship with the people except through the security institutions that lead the scene by force and violence, refusing any dialogue. So, what country is Minister Al-Zayani even talking about?

Arabic Version