“I don’t think any Arab leader has asked Hamas to do this… So it’s time to speak out.”
Bahrain’s Crown Prince and Prime Minister Salman bin Hamad bin Issa Al Khalifa on Friday condemned the “unbearable” situation in Gaza and called on Hamas to immediately release the 240 hostages held in the area.
“I don’t think any Arab leader asked Hamas to do this… So it’s time to speak openly,” Mr Khalifa told the annual security summit organized as part of the Manama dialogue. He suggested that Israel release the non-combatant women and youth currently held in its prisons in exchange for the Gaza hostages. The Crown Prince recalled that both the Koran and the Torah “both prohibit the killing of civilians.”
Khalifa clarified that Bahrain’s red lines are as follows: no forced expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, “not now and never”; no reoccupation of the Gaza Strip by Israel; no reduction of Gaza territory by Israel after the war; and zero tolerance for the use of Gaza as a launching pad for terrorism against Israel.
He claimed that the Russian invasion of Afghanistan led to the emergence of Al-Qaeda and the US invasion of Iraq led to the emergence of ISIS. Khalifa warned that the ongoing Israeli invasion of Gaza could have the same effect. “Think about what this will do in the age of social media. I think the next 20 years will be much more difficult,” he said. Khalifa added that the United States’ role in promoting the two-state solution after the war was “indispensable.”