Manama: Good intentions by all segments of the Bahraini society are required to achieve a national consensus, the crown prince has said.
"The drive towards reaching a national solution by all sections is an objective that cannot be achieved unless there are genuinely positive intentions," Crown Prince Salman Bin Hamad Al Khalifa said. "It is this objective that we have been seeking to achieve under the leadership of HM King Hamad in order to preserve the nation's interests."
Prince Salman, who was on an official visit to Washington, said that despite the difficulties compounded by the tension and escalating violence, the genuine sense of national pride and the higher interests of the nation will prevail in Bahrain.
All people should respond positively and shun the causes of divisions so that Bahrain can move forward, he said in a statement carried by Bahrain News Agency (BNA).
Prince Salman said that Bahrain has endeavoured, at the official level, to invigorate moves to overcome the negative consequences of the unrest and to boost development and progress. He added that change required time.
However, the crown prince insisted that the determination to achieve better results for the nation does exist.
Prince Salman has been pushing for a meaningful dialogue between all sections of the society since the country was split over the events that hit it in February 2011.
Three days into the unrest, Prince Salman addressed the nation on television and sought to defuse the ominous tension by calling for calm and holding a dialogue "where no-one would be excluded and no subject is off the table."
"We do not have sects, we have Bahraini Muslims," he said. "We do not categorise people as Sunnis or Shiites. However, Bahrain is a divided nation and this is an escalation that we do not want. Today we are at a crossroad … Today is the time to sit and talk," he said.
However, the unprecedented offer with a wide range of promises, was not taken up by the opposition societies that insisted that they would join the talks unless their conditions were met.
The stance prompted the US to send in Jeffrey Feltman, US Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs, to help them appreciate the opportunity.
"There is a need for all parties to work immediately to begin a dialogue that answers the legitimate aspirations of the Bahraini people," Feltman said.
Dialogues required compromises and negotiations do not start with results, he said.
"The message is to encourage dialogue and not allow extremists to set the agenda. All sides have extremists and they must not impose the agenda," he said.
Professor M. Sherif Bassiouni who headed the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry, a fact-finding panel of international experts that investigated the events in Bahrain, later said in his report that the opposition had missed a "golden opportunity."
