Bahrain warns Qatar over citizenship dispute
Inter-GCC dispute continues to heat up as Bahrain issues third warning to
Doha
Obaid Al-Suhaymi Asharq Al-Awsat Thursday, 18 Sep, 2014
http://www.aawsat.net/2014/09/article55336727

Manama, Asharq Al-Awsat -Bahrain warned on Wednesday it was ready to take
serious counter-measures against Qatar over Doha’s alleged policy of
offering Qatari citizenship to Bahraini nationals, in a development that
will further heat up already tense relations between Qatar and its Gulf
neighbors.

In a statement carried by the state-owned Bahrain News Agency, Interior
Minister Sheikh Rashid Bin Abdullah Bin Hamad Al Khalifa said Qatar’s recent
conduct was inconsistent with the spirit of the Gulf Cooperation Council
(GCC)—which in addition to Bahrain and Qatar also includes Saudi Arabia,
Oman, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)—and maintained that if Doha’s
“unfriendly and humiliating” policy of targeting Bahraini citizens
continued, Manama would be “obliged to take counter-actions that we have
never wanted to [take].”

This constitutes Doha’s third warning in two months from Manama over the
former’s alleged targeting of Sunni Bahraini citizens, offering them Qatari
nationality and asking them to give up their original Bahraini nationality.

Manama issued two previous warnings on Tuesday and August 7, and also passed
a law on August 14 that imposes fines on Bahraini citizens who take on
nationalities of other countries without the permission of the relevant
authorities.

Bahrainis are allowed to take on other Gulf nationalities, but only after
permission is granted from the minister of interior. Members of the military
are barred from taking on any other nationalities until at least five years
after their service has been completed or terminated.

Sources with knowledge of the developments told Asharq Al-Awsat that Qatar
had successfully naturalized “hundreds” of Bahraini citizens belonging to
prominent Sunni families, many of them members of the military and security
professions.

The sources, who requested anonymity, said the issue of Qatar targeting
Bahraini citizens for naturalization was one of the main sticking points
during meetings earlier this month between Qatar on one side and Bahrain,
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE on the other.

Those Gulf countries all withdrew their ambassadors from Doha in March
citing Qatar’s interference in their sovereign affairs.

This comes as one Bahraini citizen was arrested for giving up his Bahraini
nationality and obtaining Qatar citizenship. The man, Salah Mohamed
Al-Jalahma, was later freed after submitting a written apology to the
authorities vowing to correct his status in accordance with Bahraini law.

Commenting on the incident, Bahrain’s Interior Minister said: “We know that
his family is among some of the most loyal and law-abiding families of
Bahrain, who are known for their honorable history and impeccable reputation
that does not normally lead to breaking the law, facing detention and
several other measures.”

Sheikh Khalid Bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, head of the Foreign Affairs, Defense
and National Security Committee in Bahrain’s legislative assembly, told
Asharq Al-Awsat that Qatar is “working on demolishing the Bahraini political
infrastructure” through its “clear and obvious” targeting of Sunni families
in the country.

He said: “The number of Bahraini citizens who have been naturalized [as
Qatari citizens] by Qatar is limited. But what is more important here is the
act itself—Qatar targeting, luring and inciting Bahraini citizens to abandon
their Bahraini nationality.”

Meanwhile, Qatar’s Emir, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani,
assured German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday during an official
visit to Germany that his country did not provide any funding for the
Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), adding that Qatar was also
endangered by the group’s presence in the region.

A German minister had recently accused the Gulf country of being one of ISIS’s
main financial backers in the region.