Opposition Figure: No compromise with al-khalifa

TEHRAN (ST)- A senior Bahraini opposition figure dismissed talks between the al-Khalifa regime and the country’s dissidents as meaningless, and said the Bahraini people are determined to end the rule of the al-Khalifa dynasty.

“The Bahraini people’s revolution is a revolution of major change to overthrow the al-Khalifa regime and it doesn’t accept compromise,” Secretary-General of Bahrain Freedom Movement Saeed al-Shahabi told FNA on Tuesday.

He described talks between the al-Khalifa regime and opposition forces as useless and meaningless due to the continued imprisonment of Bahraini activists in the al-Khalifa jails, and rejected the proposal for the Bahraini crown prince’s succession to the thrown to replace his father.

“The Bahraini people will not accept the crown prince as the ruler of the country since he has collaborated with his father and uncle in the suppression of the people,” Shahabi underlined.

Anti-government protesters have been holding peaceful demonstrations across Bahrain since mid-February 2011, calling for an end to the al-Khalifa rule, end of discrimination, establishment of justice and a democratically-elected government as well as freedom of detained protesters.

Violence against the defenseless people escalated after a Saudi-led conglomerate of police, security and military forces from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states – Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar – were dispatched to the tiny Gulf kingdom on March 13, 2011, to help Manama crack down on peaceful protestors.

So far, tens of people have been killed, hundreds have gone missing and thousands of others have been injured.

M.D