Bahrain talks to go on without opposition
Bahrain: The Bahraini government says it will carry on with its
so-called national dialogue in the absence of the country's largest
opposition party - the Islamic National Accord Association (Al Wefaq).
"Regardless of any participant's decision to leave the dialogue will
continue," spokesman for Bahrain's National Dialogue Committee, Isa
Abdul Rahman, said on Monday, AFP reported.
On Sunday, Wefaq said it was pulling out of a national dialogue set
up by the government because the talks were occurring "without success"
and that pro-government representatives dominated.
"The Wefaq board decided to pull out of the so-called National
Consensus Dialogue and submitted its decision to the Wefaq Shura council
for ratification," Khalil al-Marzouk, Wefaq spokesman, said.
He added, "The Wefaq team will not attend the talks. We have tried
but without success to make it a serious dialogue."
Wefaq has been complaining for weeks that the opposition has been
given too small a fraction of seats - 35 out of 300 -, and is
overpowered by pro-government representatives.
Since the beginning of Bahrain's revolution, large numbers of
anti-government protesters have poured into the streets across the
Persian Gulf state, calling for more rights, freedom and wide-ranging
political reforms in the political system of their country.
According to local sources, dozens of people have been killed and
hundreds arrested so far during the government clampdown on peaceful
demonstrations. Tuesday, Press TV
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