The opening of a large UK naval base in Bahrain is a reward to London for not speaking out against the royal family’s abuses against dissenters, human rights activist Nabeel Rajab told RT. Hundreds of Bahrainis protested the announcement.
The Royal Navy will return to the former British protectorate after a 40-year absence, UK Foreign Minister Philip Hammond announced in Manama, the capital of Bahrain, on Saturday. The naval base will be the navy’s largest center of operations outside Britain.
Police used tear gas after hundreds of people took to streets in Sitra, a town near the base, to protest in the wake on the announcement. Protesters said the move was a form of payback for support of the repressive regime, which crushed the pro-democracy uprising in 2011, arresting and allegedly torturing scores of activists.
The British authorities say they plan to use the base facility in operations against the IS militant group.
“We don’t think that it will help very much the security because they could deal with ISIS from wherever they are,” Rajab said. “We’re a small nation, we’re a peaceful nation. We would like to maintain our peaceful relations with all our neighbors everywhere.”
Blast Near Manama
Meanwhile, an explosion killed a Bahraini citizen and wounded an expatriate man on Tuesday, the Interior Ministry said on its Twitter account, in the second fatal attack in the Persian Gulf Arab state in two days.
The ministry said that Karzakan, southwest of the capital Manama. The ministry referred to police were on the scene of the attack in the village of the incident as a “terrorist explosion” but did not immediately elaborate.
