From Qatar to Iran to Yemen, Conciliations Signed: Bahrain Remains Excluded

2023-10-02 - 11:04 am

Bahrain Mirror: "Coming out of a victory, entering into a loss" is what applies to Bahrain in all the regional conflicts it has entered. Countries are reconciliating and Bahrain is left hanging.

The Gulf-Gulf dispute ended with the Al-Ula statement on January 4, 2021, and Gulf relations with Qatar returned to their previous state, yet Bahrain remained outside the circle of settlement, to pay the cost of the bill for a dispute that it has nothing to do with.

Manama has been left alone in its attempts to settle its situation with Doha according to regional developments, but the latter is still holding back as if it wants to punish Bahrain for taking a hostile stance that it could have avoided.

On the other hand, under Chinese auspices, Saudi Arabia and Iran signed an agreement to restore diplomatic relations last March, after years of severing ties and political tensions.

The government of Bahrain played the role of political tail as usual in these tensions and took all the steps taken by Riyadh, from withdrawing the ambassador, closing the embassy, and stopping flights, direct trade exchange, and other moves.

Bahrain strongly involved itself in the tensions, but it was not a party in calming these tensions. The two regional countries exchanged ambassadors and visits at the level of foreign ministers and pledged to ease tensions, but neither of them came to Manama.

As for the war on Yemen, not much changed, as Riyadh and Sana'a reached a truce under which all military actions would be ceased, but the agreement remains fragile and the recent targeting of Bahraini forces was one of major breaches of the agreement.

The spokesman for the Ministry of Health in the Sana'a government said that 2,328 Yemeni civilians were killed as a result of coalition shelling on the border areas in Saada since the beginning of the truce, announced in early April 2022, until the 8th of this month.

These exclusive statements to Al-Mayadeen TV came after a drone attack on the headquarters of Bahraini forces in southern Saudi Arabia that killed and wounded several Bahraini soldiers.

Although the Yemeni authorities considered this a violation they regretted, but the targeting of Bahrainis may have been a message to the Saudis inked by Bahraini blood, stressing the need to reach a lasting peace that ends the blockade on Yemen.

Ansar Allah leader Abdul Malik Al-Houthi has said that the continuation of war, occupation and siege will backfire on the coalition of aggression that must respond to peace efforts.

Unfortunately, Bahrain has once again fallen victim to major conflicts that are beyond its power, just because there is a government in place that is controlled by other capitals, which goes against its national interests.

The patriotism that the government challenges its opponents with, unfortunately, is far from it. It has relied in its decision-making on Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, and other times on the East and West, and the interests of the country remained at the end of the list of interests behind the decisions made.

Arabic Version