Sovereignty and legitimate rights: Historical facts

After the Kuwaiti mediation stalled and after Qatar continued to fail in its 2013 and 2014 commitments, brought in foreign forces to empower itself and opened its doors wide to terrorist groups, Bahrain has taken new measures in addition to the previous ones taken by the boycotting countries in order to protect its security and stability.
Bahrain, throughout all its steps, has taken into consideration that we, the people of Bahrain and Qatar, are one entity and that our social bonds have been, and will remain, our inevitable destiny, meaning that what affects our people in Qatar affects us here in Bahrain.

Respect for the "legitimacy" between states is the safety valve in international relations and it is one of the constants that we strongly uphold regardless of how profound our differences are in the Arab world or within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

Within this spirit, Bahrain, as can be testified by living witnesses, has endured the intolerable and conceded many of its internationally documented historic rights in order to distance the GCC from bilateral differences.

1. Assault on legitimacy

As is well-known historically, Bahrain has lost part of its sovereign entity when Doha cut off from its sovereign borders. These borders are well-documented in contemporary history and were known by every single one in the early 1900s.

Later, and in the 1950s, Bahrain lost another part of its sovereign existence when the northern territory was forcibly cut off by a foreign support force that set the new border according to the new oil border. The border expanded at the expense of the legitimate rights of Bahrain to the north and from Umm Al Shubram, 20 kilometres south of Doha to the area of "Salwa" in the south. The island of "Halul" was included. The borders of the new Qatar were drawn according to the required oil border, which was defined in the agreements as the new concessions to the British Petroleum Company.

The Kingdom of Bahrain has every right to claim what was cut off forcibly from its land and to dispute the legitimacy of the Qatari rule on the northern territory.

However, when the brothers from the Gulf States met to establish an entity that would bring them together, everybody agreed to postpone all discussions regarding border issues to avoid controversial cases and instead move ahead with strengthening the new Council.

Bahrain honoured the request by the brothers, agreed to postpone the claim of its rights, accepted the losses and gave up what it is rightfully hers in order to ensure the unity of the Gulf.

Later, Bahrain once again placed the GCC interests above its own. When the GCC convened an emergency meeting in August 1990 to consider the issue of the occupation of Kuwait, Qatar insisted that the dispute between Bahrain and Qatar on the Hawar Islands be discussed at that critical time before everything else, including addressing the essential and crucial issue of the occupation and liberation of Kuwait.

For the sake of collective interest and the reinstatement of legitimacy in sisterly Kuwait, Bahrain referred part of its sovereign entity to international arbitration. This meant that the Kingdom of Bahrain accepted not to ask for what is rightly hers, while Qatar every time demanded what is not hers.

2. Support for terrorism

Qatar has not only usurped Bahrain’s legitimate rights, but has also worked for years on undermining the security of the Kingdom, offering support to every saboteur and terrorist for two decades. Qatar also supported terrorist groups during the unrest in Bahrain in 2011 that attempted to overthrow the legitimacy in the kingdom. Qatar did the same thing in all the countries that slid into chaos and saw their regimes fall in what was called “Arab Spring”.

3. Naturalization of terrorists

Qatar has allowed in more than 59 terrorists wanted by affected countries and gave them the Qatari citizenship, thus preventing their extradition.

Today, Qatar is naturalizing more terrorist groups coming from volatile areas of conflict, thus transforming itself into a focal point for the terrorists that it sends to neighbouring countries with Qatari passports. Such a scheme poses serious threats to security and leads to increased terrorism in the region.

4. Qatar’s relations with countries that support terrorism

Qatar has announced the strengthening of the Iranian-Qatari alliance, which poses a direct threat to regional security and territorial integrity and jeopardises international attempts to stop the arming of Iranian-backed groups such as the Houthis, Al Qaeda, Saraya Al Ashtar and other groups on terrorist lists.

Finally, History bears witness that Bahrain has always been a peace-loving nation that has never infringed on anyone or gone beyond its limits. It has confined itself to defending the safety and security of its citizens. Its martyrs have sacrificed their lives for the sake of their nation while they confronted the terrorist groups trained by Iran and backed by Qatar.

These are not gratuitous charges, but well documented accusations supported by irrefutable evidence, backed by undeniable proof and confirmed by telephone recordings.

Source: BNA