AhlulBayt News Agency

source : FNA
Thursday

30 November 2017

3:03:10 PM
870105

Iran voices concern about health conditions of Sheikh Issa Qassim

(AhlulBayt News Agency) - The Iranian foreign ministry expressed concern over the situation and health conditions of the senior Shiite cleric in Bahrain, Sheikh Issa Qassim.

“Bahraini officials' severe limitations and continued confinement of the opposition leader made access to medical services for him difficult,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said on Wednesday.

“The Bahrain government is responsible for all consequences,” he added, calling for the international bodies’ mediation for removing restrictions and giving urgent aids to Sheikh Qassim.

“Continued adoption of security approaches by Bahraini officials will make conditions more complicated,” Qassemi said.

One of the leaders of al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, an opposition group in Bahrain, said on Sunday that the movement’s leader Sheikh Isa Qassim is not in good conditions and needs immediate attention, but he is in custody and his house is surrounded by security forces.

There were clashes between al-Khalifa security forces and the Bahraini youths on Monday night.

With the increase of anti-government protests, Saudi-backed al-Khalifa regime detained Sheikh Qassim for his speeches against the regime.

Bahrain has been the scene of anti-regime protests on an almost daily basis ever since a popular uprising began in the country in February 2011.

People have been demanding that the al-Khalifah dynasty relinquish power and let a just system representing all Bahrainis be established.

Scores of people have been killed and hundreds of others wounded or detained amid Manama’s crackdown on dissent and widespread discrimination against Bahrain’s Shiite majority.

Sheikh Qassim, the spiritual leader of Bahrain’s dissolved opposition bloc the al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, was stripped of his nationality in June 2016 over allegations that he used his position to serve foreign interests and promote sectarianism and violence.

The cleric, who is in his mid-70s, has denied the allegations.



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