UK Royals Arrive in Bahrain amid Crackdown
Local Editor
Britain's Prince Charles and his wife Camilla arrived Tuesday in the tiny island nation of Bahrain as London has been under fire for providing military support to the repressive regime in Manama.
An honor guard and Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa greeted the royal pair at Sakhir Air Base. From there, they saw Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa at a nearby palace.
But while British and Bahraini flags flew along their route at sunset, nearby police vehicles with windows covered in chicken wire betrayed the low-level unrest that's been gripping the island for years.
Activists had criticized Bahrain's rulers for a recent crackdown on dissent at a level unseen since 2011 anti-regime protests.
Activists had been forced into exile, while others had been stripped of their citizenship. The country's largest Shiite opposition group has been shut down by the Bahraini regime.
London has been under fire by international rights organizations for selling military equipment to Manama, which is involved in a harsh and deadly crackdown on opposition activists.
It was reported late last month that the UK will open a massive permanent military base in Bahrain and deploy warships to the Gulf.
The military base, which is the first such facility being opened by Britain in 40 years in the Gulf region, will be launched next month, Britain's Express newspaper reported.
Britain will station around 600 military forces at the Royal Navy Facility and will deploy its warships to patrol the surrounding waters and guard oil and gas shipments in the waters.
When Britain kicked off the project in 2014, Defense Secretary Michael Fallon described it as "a permanent expansion of the Royal Navy's footprint" in the Gulf. The project has bypassed the parliament.
According to data released by the UK Trade and Investment in September, the UK government has become the world's second biggest arms dealer, with bulk of its weapons fueling deadly conflicts in the Middle East.
Prince Charles and Camilla had already visited Oman and the United Arab Emirates on their three-nation tour of the Gulf.
While in the UAE on Tuesday, the two visited Dubai's International Humanitarian City, while Prince Charles saw Dubai's site for hosting the coming 2020 World Expo, or world's fair.
The couple's weeklong trip ends Friday.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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