Dubai - Bahrain's leading opposition group threatened on Tuesday to pull out of a national dialogue aimed at reforms after weeks of protests, as it sees little chance of success.
Khalil al-Marzouq, head of the delegates from the Gulf Arab country's largest Shi'ite opposition party Wefaq, said serious reforms were unlikely to be achieved through the dialogue offered by the government of the Sunni-ruled island kingdom.
“We advise distancing ourselves from something that could portray us as partners in a dialogue which will lead to results distant from, if not contradictory to, the people's will,” he said in the statement to the party leadership.
Bahrain's Sunni rulers crushed weeks of pro-democracy protests led mostly by the Shi'ite majority in March. After a crackdown, the government launched a national dialogue on July 2 in an effort to lay the groundwork to heal a growing sectarian divide and address calls for reform.
“Despite our serious efforts to amend measures ..., they are ignored and rejected,” Marzouq said. “The dialogue's administrators control the path of the dialogue, its agenda, its topics and its mechanisms”.
Participants in Tuesday's session said some Sunni delegates called Shi'ite Bahrainis “rawafidh” meaning “rejectionists” - a derogatory term for Shi'ites.
Government officials said the dialogue would continue and called on participants to remain in talks.
“We encourage everyone to remain in the dialogue... we hope the opposition will continue to take part, as we've been aiming since day one for an inclusive dialogue,” said government spokesman for the dialogue, Isa Abdulrahman.
“I can confirm that one participant made inappropriate remarks... that person has retracted his remark and chose not to participate in today's session.”
Moderate opposition groups such as Wefaq have called for a more representative parliamentary system. But hard-liners calling for an abolition of the monarchy have gained popularity since the government crackdown, in which hundreds, mostly Shi'ites, were arrested and some 2,000 workers sacked.
Anti-dialogue protests now erupt daily in Shi'ite villages and tensions are simmering in Bahrain, home port of the U.S. Navy's strategic Fifth Fleet.
Bahrain is seen as a fault line for tensions between Shi'ite power Iran and Sunni Gulf Arab countries wary of protests spreading to their own Shi'ite minorities.
Wefaq members said they would withdrew from the dialogue session after the remarks, though they had already planned to advise the party leadership to completely pull out of talks before the row.
Opposition groups like Wefaq were critical of the talks even before they began, noting that they only had 35 out of 300 seats at the dialogue table and accusing other members of being pro-government.
The government says it is trying to ensure all sectors of society are fairly represented, including those who are not part of political parties. - Reuters