Pope blasts ‘childlike’ wars at Bahrain interfaith summit
A Bahraini activist speaks to media outside the U.S. embassy during a protest against U.S. President George W. Bush’s address to Muslims in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, June 2, 2005. (Umit Bektas/Reuters)
Bahraini activists, including some prominent dissidents, criticized the Obama administration’s visit to the Gulf kingdom as part of its campaign to pressure Israel to accept its demand that a Palestinian state be established alongside the Jewish state.
“I think our (U.S.] visit is a sign of good cooperation between the U.S. and Bahrain. We need to work together and see the world in a different way,” said a Bahraini activist, who declined to be named.
“Now they (the U.S.) have come with a new approach in which they want to control the economy, and the Bahraini administration is not willing to agree with them,” he added. The activist was referring to the Obama administration’s efforts to pressure Israel to accept its demand that a Palestinian state be established alongside the Jewish state.
The Obama administration had already invited Bahrain’s Sunni King Hamad bin Isa al Khalifa to the White House to meet with President Obama, but the Bahrainis had rejected the invitation on grounds that they would be denied visas. Bahrain demanded visas for the U.S. delegation members of the U.S. Congress as a condition for meeting with the King and other government officials.
A U.S. official said the Bahraini government had not sought the visas.
The official declined to comment on the Bahraini government’s decision to reject the invitation, saying it was “inappropriate for me to comment on discussions that are being held between the Bahraini government and the U.S. government.”
‘This is not the real America’
Speaking at a rally at the U.S. Embassy in Manama, Obama called the U.S.-Bahrain relationship “the best in the region.” He added that he wanted to build on the relationship and stressed that the U.S. would continue to support Bahrain in its fight against terrorism and in hosting its own independent diplomatic mission in the country.
In addition to the visit, Obama met today with the King of Libya, Muammar Qaddafi,
