Manama seeks regional bloc with Tel Aviv
AFP
DUBAI: The foreign minister of Bahrain has called for the creation of a
regional grouping of Arab states with historic foe Israel, as well as Iran and
Turkey, a newspaper reported yesterday.
"Israel, Iran, Turkey and Arab states should sit together in one
organization," Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmad Al-Khalifa was quoted in the pan-Arab
daily Al-Hayat as saying.
"Aren't we all members of a global organization called the United
Nations? Why not (come together) on a regional basis? This is the only way to
solve our problems. There's no other way to solve them, now or in 200 years."
The paper, which interviewed the Bahraini chief diplomat in New York,
said he had proposed the establishment of a regional bloc in a speech to the UN
General Assembly.
The Gulf state is a major ally of the United States and has a free trade
agreement with Washington. It also hosts the US Navy's Fifth Fleet.
Bahrain's Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, met Israeli
officials during World Economic Forum summits in 2000 and 2003, while Sheikh
Khaled met Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni at the UN last year.
But political groupings in Bahrain resist any attempt at normalization of
ties with Israel. Only two Arab countries - Egypt and Jordan - have
full-fledged peace treaties with Israel. Qatar is one of a handful of Arab
countries to maintain political contacts with the Jewish state.
Forging ties with Israel without a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli
conflict is generally unpopular among ordinary Arabs. "Why don't we sit
together even if we disagree, even if we don't recognize each other? Let's be
in a single organization in order to overcome the difficult stage through which
the Middle East is passing - a stage that remains hostage to the past," Sheikh
Khaled said, referring to the decades-old Arab-Israeli conflict.
Told that his proposal might be perceived by some as a "dream" since it
was hard to see hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sitting
alongside Israel, Sheikh Khaled said: "If this is perceived as a dream, well,
many dreams have become reality."
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