VP says ForMin Bahrain remarks in line with his own

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The foreign ministry’s statements criticizing the Iraqi government’s handling of the situation in Bahrain fall in line with the statements made by Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi that Iraq should refrain from interfering in the Gulf state’s internal affairs, Hashemi’s office said on Sunday. “Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs Labid Abbawi’s statements considered the harsh criticism made by some Iraqi politicians against some member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) regarding developments in Bahrain as not serving Iraq’s relations with those countries. Furthermore, this criticism has given the conflict a sectarian dimension,” read a statement by Hashemi’s office as received by IraqiNews.com news agency. “The politicians’ statements brought Iraq to even lose the initiative to mediate among the brothers in Bahrain,” it added. The statement also considered the Iraqi foreign ministry’s remarks as falling in line with what Hashemi has told the mass media about the need that Iraq should step ahead for reconciliation in Bahrain rather than meddling in its internal affairs. Hashemi had sent a message to Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari in which he said that Iraq’s restoring of its role in the regional and international arenas requires the adoption of rational foreign policy leaning on balanced and well-calculated statements. Several Iraqi officials had severely criticized the entry of GCC forces into Bahrain in a bid to maintain order and law in the Gulf state, where massive protests, mainly by majority Shiites, were calling on the ruling Sunni minority for extensive political reforms. The Iraqi parliament had suspended its sessions for one day in protest over what some legislators termed as “human rights violations by Bahraini security forces against civilians and violence to stifle demonstrations calling for political reforms.” AmR (TS) 800