Manama: Bahrain’s foreign minister said that his country welcomed the agreement brokered in Geneva over Iran’s nuclear agreement.
“This is an important agreement that will eventually serve stability and defuse any imminent crisis,” Shaikh Khalid Bin Ahmad Al Khalifa said.
Addressing a press conference in the Bahraini capital Manama alongside his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu, the minister expressed hope the agreement would “help banish the spectre of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and end concerns about the existence of such weapons, be they in Iran or any other state in the region.”
Shaikh Khalid rejected claims that Bahrain had concerns about Iran reaching a nuclear deal with the P5+1 world powers, saying it was a new beginning to restore stability and calm to the region.
He added that Bahrain’s relations with the international community were not built on provisional regional alliances.
“Bahrain would like to have good relations with Iran based on mutual respect of sovereignty,” he said. “We do not change allies like we are in a market. We look for stability with our neighbours,” he said.
Referring to Bahraini-Turkish relations, he said that Manama and Ankara had well-anchored ties that have developed throughout the times and in the political, economic, cultural and tourism areas.
“Turkey is highly significant to us and we look forward to developing our relations in all fields,” Shaikh Khalid said.
The minister said that Bahrain was grateful to Turkey for its support in dealing with the events that had occurred in the kingdom, adding that Ankara was among the capitals that stressed the sovereignty of the country and rejected any form of interference in its internal affairs.
Shaikh Khalid said that he was optimistic about expanding the strategic relations between Manama and Ankara and referred to the impressive jump in the number of Bahraini tourists from 3,000 a few years ago to 14,000 last year.
Davutoglu said that his country did not interfere in the internal affairs of Egypt.
On Saturday, Egypt downgraded its diplomatic relations with Turkey and ordered its ambassador expelled from Cairo. Turkey reciprocated by declaring the Egyptian ambassador “persona non grata”.
“They are our friends and it is our hope that the country will have a good government. However, the present break-off resulted from Egypt expelling the Turkish ambassador. We retaliated with expelling their ambassador, and that is normal,” Davutoglu said.
Turkey does not take sides with any party in Egypt, he added.
