(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Al-Wefaq’s contribution to the one-month national dialogue is “central to its success,” the official Bahrain News Agency reported, citing Isa Abdul Rahman, spokesman for the talks. “Should any participant choose to exclude themselves from the process, the door will remain open for them to return,” he was cited as saying by the news service.
Bahrain opened the talks on July 2 following a crackdown by the discriminate-controlled government on the mainly Shiite protesters. King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, a Sunni, called for a “national dialogue” in the Persian Gulf Arab country in May, four months after the beginning of the protests that were led by Shiites calling for increased civil rights and democracy. About 300 people have been invited to attend the forum, which will meet three times a week until the end of July.
“We feel that a predetermined outcome was already planned,” Khalil al-Marzooq, a representative from Al-Wefaq, said in a phone interview from Manama. “Without serious dialogue there won’t be a solution.”
Wefaq had complained for weeks the opposition had been given too small a fraction of seats -- 35 out of 300 -- and was overpowered by pro-government representatives. The government says it distributed seats in a way that was representative of Bahraini society.
In a popular revolution, tens of thousands of Bahraini protesters have been holding peaceful anti-regime rallies throughout the country since February, demanding an end to the rule of the family.
Al Khalifa has governed the oil-rich island for over 40 years with major backing from the United States, Britain and the neighboring Saudi Arabia.
Scores of people have been killed and many more arrested and tortured in prisons as part of the clampdown in the country -- a longtime US ally and home to the US Navy's Fifth Fleet.
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