British Foreign and Commonwealth Office Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Dr Christian Turner, on a visit to Bahrain welcomed the decisive leadership which His Majesty the King, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa had taken in implementation of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) recommendations.
At his meeting with His Royal Highness The Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Bahrain Defence Forces, Prince Salman bin Hamad AlKhalifa, ministers and political leaders he expressed British Prime Minister David Cameron’s call for courage and generosity from all sides.
The visiting dignitary urged restraint, political dialogue and the effective and early implementation of all BICI recommendation.
“The United Kingdom supports the right to peaceful protest, an essential element in any democracy. We welcome the fact that the government has authorised various political gatherings in recent days. However, we call on all sides to reject violence and to do so publicly.
This would be an important confidence building measure,” he said
Dr Turner also underlined the need for dialogue on political reform and strongly welcomed indications that such discussions were now beginning. “It was important that levels of violence be reduced and political rhetoric lowered in order to give dialogue a chance to prosper,” he added.
He concluded, “The United Kingdom, as a long-standing and close ally of the Bahrain, has offered assistance to help bring long-term stability and prosperity to the Kingdom.
This includes support in areas around capacity building, reducing sectarian tension, development of human rights legislation, judicial assistance and longer term security and justice sector reform.”