Bahrain's leaders mull talks to calm unrest
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After thousands of mainly Shiite protesters have taken to the streets, Bahrain is seeking a national dialogue where everything is on the table, the kingdom's foreign minister said on Thursday.
Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmed al-Khalifa said that dialogue would include "all walks of people", including a hardline opposition figure who was pardoned and is trying to return home.
"What's happening in Bahrain is a new transformation, a new beginning for our reforms that started a decade ago," Sheikh Khaled said.
"Everything can be brought to the table," he said, responding to questions over whether Bahrain would consider changes in its cabinet in response to the demands of protesters.
Last week, Bahrain saw its worst unrest since the 1990s when seven people were killed in protests by its majority Shiites, who complain of discrimination and want an elected government.
Sheikh Khaled said that he expected formal talks between the government and opposition to start within days and that Hassan Mushaimaa, the London-based leader of the Shiite Haq movement, could return to the country.
Mushaimaa has been stranded in Beirut since Tuesday, after authorities wouldn't allow him to board a flight to Manama because his name was on an international arrest warrant. A Lebanese judicial source said Mushaimaa's passport had been seized, but he was not in custody.
"The Bahraini government has distributed his name to borders in the Arab world," Abbas al-Amran, a friend of Mushaimaa, said. "He will not let himself be arrested. He wants to take a plane and come to Bahrain as an ordinary citizen."
Mushaimaa is among 25 people charged last year in an alleged coup plot and was being tried in absentia. But the government freed the other defendants on Tuesday as one of several gestures to try to defuse anti-government protests that at their height drew tens of thousands.
A statement by King Hamad bin Isa on Monday hinted the trial would be shelved, which would let Mushaimaa return unhindered. Lebanese authorities were checking with Bahraini authorities on whether to let him fly to Manama, the Lebanese official said.
Mushaimaa's Haq party is more radical than the Shiite Wefaq party, from which it split in 2006 when Wefaq contested a parliamentary election. Haq's leaders have often been arrested in recent years, only to receive royal pardons.
Bahrain's protesters want a constitutional monarchy instead of the existing system where citizens vote for a mostly toothless parliament and policy remains the preserve of a ruling elite centered on the Sunni al-Khalifa dynasty.
Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa has proposed dialogue, but he has yet to persuade the opposition that the government is serious about constitutional reforms. Government supporters have also staged rallies.
"Talks with representatives of Bahrain society and the Crown Prince continue, and positive progress is being made toward the commencement of the national dialogue," a government statement said.
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