Bahrain summoned Iran’s charge d’affaires over what Manama described as Tehran’s “blatant interference” in the Persian Gulf kingdom’s domestic affairs.
At the meeting on Saturday, an official protest note was presented to Hamid Shafizadeh over Iran’s support for the Bahraini people’s demand for democracy.
It described the Islamic Republic’s stance on human rights violations in the Arab country as “blatant interference in Bahrain’s domestic affairs and an abuse of the kingdom’s sovereignty and independence”, Bahrain News Agency quoted the kingdom’s Foreign Ministry as saying in a report published on Saturday.
Bahrain has repeatedly accused Iran of meddling in its internal affairs. This is while human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have criticized the Bahraini government for its crackdown on pro-democracy protests, including detention of activists, violent methods to disperse demonstrators and a media blackout on rallies. Protesters in Bahrain have held numerous demonstrations on the streets of the country, calling on the ruling monarchy to implement major political reforms to ensure the rights of all groups.
