His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa hailed the Peninsula Shield joint forces for their role in preserving Bahrain’s security and stability during the deplorable events which hit the Kingdom last year.
In an interview with German Der Spiegel, he said that he requested military help from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in March 2011 to protect Bahrain’s strategic installations.
He told SPIEGEL that he regretted the events which hit Bahrain last year, pointing out that he had to intervene to stop the violence and protect women.
The king said that he decided to declare the state of national safety four weeks after the start of the protests because there had been racially-motivated violence and people had been injured and killed. “Also our women were very scared and it is the duty of a gentleman to protect women, so I had to protect them,” he said.
I regret the events of last year,” he said. “In a sense there is no ‘opposition’ in Bahrain, as the phrase implies one unified block with the same views.
Such a phrase is not in our constitution, unlike say the United Kingdom.
We only have people with different views and that’s ok.” The king said his country tried to have good relations with its neighbors, including Iran.
“There is no doubt that some in Iran have an unhealthy focus on Bahrain, as some of the broadcast coverage shows,” he said, which prompted him to request military help from the Gulf Cooperation Council in March 2011.
HM the King called on Syrian President Bashar Assad to listen to his people, adding that it was up to the Syrians to decide whether Assad should step down. “The best advice for him is from the Syrian people,” he said.