Bahraini government: Door still open for national dialogue

One day after the suspension of the general sessions of the national dialogue after the absence of the opposition representatives, the Bahraini government has announced that door is still open for dialogue and urged the opposition to help achieve peaceful solution to the political standoff. "The doors will remain open for the six (opposition) associations to return to the negotiating table to resume the national dialogue sessions," Minister of State for Information Affairs and Government's Official Spokesperson Samira Ibrahim bin Rajab said in statements carried by the state news agency (BNA) Thursday. She went on to say that the absence of the opposition representatives was the main reason behind Wednesday's decision to suspense the general sessions of the national dialogue. She noted that the main objective of the dialogue is ironing out differences and reaching national consensus and the absence of the opposition will make these goals unreachable. "The six associations, which are a major component in the completion of the dialogue sessions, have already suspended their participation in the dialogue sessions in July 2011, and again they suspended their participation Wednesday after failing to impose their own agenda on the conferrers, therefore they bear responsibility for suspending the national dialogue sessions," Rajab said. She underlined that the government of Bahrain has worked hard to provide a suitable national climate to make the dialogue sessions successful in line with the principle of consensus and the rule of law and not to impose one's opinion on others. "Based on this principle, the parties involved are convinced of the futility of continuing the dialogue sessions in the absence of the six associations from the dialogue sessions which are scheduled to discuss political gains," she concluded.