The British ambassador in the Kingdom of Bahrain Iain Lindsay said that his country remained suspicious about the Iranian nuclear ambitions.
The Ambassador also accused Iran of supporting terrorism, and seeking to destabilize the region through Hezbollah and vassal militias in Iraq and pinpointed Iran’s negative role in Afghanistan in addition to violation of human rights and supplying equipment and logistics to the Syrian regime which enables it to crackdown on the Syrian people.
The ambassador warned from a nuclear Iran which constitutes a big threat to the Middle East security, and cited the long-term, close cooperation between Britain and GCC countries against terrorism and nuclear proliferation.
He praised the steps, reformation initiatives of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa Monarch of the Kingdom of Bahrain and HM’s resolution stipulating the creation of Bahrain’s Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), as well as HM’s accepting BICI’s recommendations and proceeding on implementation of its recommendations.
The British ambassador, in his inaugural speech today before the dialogue forum regarding the theme of “External factors in Bahraini-British relations: scope of regional cooperation”, has accentuated his country’s absolute rejection of any Iranian interference in the Kingdom of Bahrain’s internal affairs.
The British ambassador condemned recurrent street violence which continues even after HM’s reformative initiatives, urged demonstrators to maintain peace and to respect the law, and he thanked the Interior Ministry for their abidance with the law in tackling street violence and their implementation of BICI’s recommendations and expressed his country’s support to the Kingdom of Bahrain’s efforts in boosting reforms, security and stability, citing historical bilateral relations between the Kingdom of Bahrain and Britain over the past 400 years since the creation of the first British company on Arabian Gulf shores and praised the strong relations which existed between both countries even before the 1971-treaty.
The British ambassador described bilateral relations as multidimensional, interlinked and extending beyond economic, political and security aspects to community relations in view of the considerable presence of the British community living in Bahrain.
The ambassador cited the meeting held last December between the British Prime Minister and HM the King and possibility for Bahrain to benefit from Britain which saw acts of street violence in Northern Ireland, and praised the pivotal role played by the Kingdom of Bahrain in fighting terrorism and overseas piracy.
The ambassador praised current development and the open economic atmospheres in the Kingdom of Bahrain recognized by international organizations and invited British investors to invest in the Kingdom of Bahrain in view of Bahrain’s attractive investment potentials and regional competition.