Bahraini Leaks: Emirati approval to finance arms deal to Bahrain in exchange for incitement against Qatar
The UAE government has agreed to cover the costs of an arms deal Bahrain intends to acquire in the foreseeable future, confirmed high-ranking security and political sources.
The Bahraini Minister of Defense Affairs, Lieutenant-General Abdullah bin Hassan Al-Nuaimi, is planning to conclude new arms deals to protect the throne of the Khilafite regime in Bahrain. The Bahraini Minister of Defense attended the activities of the 15th International Defense Exhibition and Conference (IDEX 2021), held at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center.
During his visit, the Minister Alnauimi toured the exhibition and was briefed on a number of pavilions participating in the state of the art exhibition of global defense systems and modern military technologies.
On the sidelines of the exhibition, Al Nuaimi met his Emirati counterpart, Mohammed bin Ahmed Al Bawardi, and asked him to cover the cost of concluding the military deal, given the lack of Bahraini regime’s treasury of funds.
In turn, the Emirati approval came after the culmination of an agreement between the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and the King of Bahrain, Hamad bin Isa last week.
The UAE, in return for its financial support, had requested Bahrain to continue its diplomatic and media incitement efforts against Qatar.
The Bahraini opposition accuses the ruling regime of conducting corrupt and expired arms deals at a time it fails to protect human rights. Despite the economic crisis and the terrible human rights situations, Bahrain is scrambling Saudi Arabia and the UAE, making military deals at a rapid rate.
“Arms deals concluded by the regime are corrupt, and the money paid to buy them is meant to satisfy the authorities’ UK masters,” said Hussein Al-Haddad, a prominent leader of the Bahraini opposition.
“This is to cover up the stolen money inside the country [corruption], and this is a very dangerous matter,” added Al-Haddad.
Bahrain justifies its purchase of costly military deals under the pretext of preserving the homeland’s soil and keeping its security and stability.
However, Sheikh Al-Haddad noted that the Bahraini regime “wants to cover up the looted funds with bogus and failed arms deals? Bahrain has never entered into a single battle since its establishment. The foreign military presence in Bahrain is only meant to protect the king’s throne and not his people.”
The export of weapons and military equipment to Bahrain raises widespread controversy about the countries that export weapons to Bahrain, especially given their role in the Yemen war.
Human Rights Watch called on the world’s governments to refuse to sell weapons to Bahrain, given its poor record on human rights and continuing persecution of dissidents.
As part of German government coalition talks, the major parties have announced a stop on all arms exports to any countries involved in the war in Yemen. This came after pressure from the Social Democratic partner of the coalition.
The German government said it would “immediately” stop approving arms exports to anyone participating in the war in Yemen. The move would include Saudi Arabia, a major buyer of German weapons.
A German parliamentarian attacked his country’s government for exporting weapons to several countries in the Middle East, particularly those that have terrible human rights records and participates in the ongoing conflicts in the region, including the Yemen war.
This came after it was learnt that Berlin had agreed to arms exports worth more than one billion euros in 2020.
According to a response from the Ministry of Economy to a question from a member of the Bundestag, Germany’s Green Party Omid Nuribor, Bahrain was approved to receive exports of weapons and military equipment worth 1.5 million.
