(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - "We do not accept any precondition for negotiations," Sheikh Ali Salman said.
Salman also added that if the opposition accepts to attend such talks, the results of the meetings should be put to a referendum.
His remarks came after Bahraini Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad called for dialogue with the country's opposition to break a deadlock in the restive Persian Gulf Arab state, an appeal met with skepticism by rights activists. The ruling Al-Khalifa family used martial law and help from their Persian Gulf Arab neighbors to put down uprisings in March last year, but to no avail.
Protesters and police clash almost daily as Demonstrations are banned.
"I call for a meeting between all sides, as I believe that only through face-to-face dialogue will any real progress be made," Prince Salman said late on Friday in an address to a conference on Middle East security organized by the International Institute for Security Studies.
No opposition figures were invited to the conference. "We know dialogue would help solve the problems in Bahrain, but we don't see any positive messages from the authorities," said Mohammed al-Maskati, head of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights. "The repression is ongoing, people are facing unfair trials, activists are in jail… You have to ask - if he is serious, why doesn't he make this address at a national level? It's just propaganda by the authorities," he said.
Anti-government protesters have been holding peaceful demonstrations across Bahrain since mid-February 2011, calling for an end to the al-Khalifa dynasty's over-40-year 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 Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) member states - Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar - were dispatched to the tiny Persian 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.
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