King hails solid Bahraini-Egyptian relations

Manama, Mar. 6 (BNA): His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa hailed the solid longstanding Bahraini-Egyptian relations highlighted by progress in various fields. HM the King today at the Sakhir Palace received Al-Ahram Chairman, Head of Egypt's Press Syndicate, Abdel-Mohsen Salama, and the accompanying delegation. He paid tribute to the role of Egypt led by President Abdul Fatah Al-Sisi in supporting Arab national security, noting its efforts to counter terrorism and extremism and promoting regional and international peace and security. HM the King praised Egypt’s press role in leading enlightenment, the intellectual and cultural movement, consolidating values of good citizenship, Arabism, tolerance, moderation, rejection of hatred and terrorism and adherence to objectivity. In response to a question raised by the delegation on the Qatar crisis, HM the King stressed Bahrain’s respect for sovereignty of states and principles of good neighborliness and non-interference in the affairs of other countries. He added that, through the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Bahrain had always called for joint action to support the Arab nation, but Qatar had adopted an inconsistent policy with the GCC’s. Bahrain had urged Qatar to stop interfering in its internal affairs, but Doha did not respond because of the obstinacy of its leadership and its insistence on going on supporting terrorism and creating a tense atmosphere between Doha on the one hand and Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and other Arab countries on the other. In his discussion with the Egyptian media delegation about the Qatar crisis, HM King Hamad wondered why the Emir of Qatar when the crisis broke out did not go Riyadh to explain his stance. That is what the younger brother must do. In our traditions, the younger brother must go to the older brother and discuss matters. Also, the Emir of Qatar could have asked the assistance of the Peninsula Shield to preserve security. This is one of the roles of the GCC armed force as we have agreed. Instead, he called in forces from foreign countries. Why didn’t Qatar honour its pledge to respect the agreements that the Emir of Qatar signed in 2013 and the complementary agreement that he signed in 2014 and which includes not to target or harm Egypt? HM King Hamad told the Egyptian media leaders that Bahrain was not happy to see Qataris in an awkward position. Qataris are our relatives and friends. They were our people before the rule by Al Thani. The accusations that the Quartet tried to carry out a coup to cancel the initial coup are not at all true, HM the King said. There had been several coups before it because of the differences within the system, and in fact, we are all worried about the numerous coups in Qatar as they are a cause of instability. We hope there us a stable constitutional system in Qatar because the stability of Qatar is important to all of us. HM the King concluded by stressing that if Qatar did not change its current policy which is inconsistent with that of the GCC, the current situation would continue. Al-Ahram Chairman commended the royal interest in strengthening cooperation and partnership with Egypt, welcoming Bahrain’s solidarity with Egypt in its development and fight against terrorism. He lauded the royal initiative to disseminate the culture of peace, tolerance and dialogue among religions and cultures, which has been recently culminated in the establishment of the King Hamad's Global Centre for Peaceful Co-existence.