King of Bahrain hails Putin’s role in Syrian crisis settlement - foreign minister

SOCHI, February 8. /TASS/. King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain has praised the role of President Vladimir Putin and the Russian government in resolving the Syrian crisis, Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmad Al Khalifa said on Monday. "As for the Syrian crisis, His Majesty highly assessed the roles of the president, government and Russian people in assisting Syria to resolve the crisis," the minister said. "We think that all major and influential countries should cooperate with Russia to bring Syria back to peace and stability." "We also count on cooperation with Moscow in the format of a strategic dialogue between Russia and the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf and hail the renewed Russian concept on providing security in the Persian Gulf region," he said. "We are studying the concept now." According to the minister, Bahrain and Russia share common positions on the problems of the Middle East and North Africa. "First of all, it is the necessity of counteracting terrorism, searching for peaceful settlement of the existing conflicts, inadmissibility of states’ collapse and overthrow of legal governments," he said. He said some countries in the region "faced demonstrations of inter-religious and inter-confessional fights" which led to refuges crisis. "This is a global problem weakening the countries," the minister added. Talking about bilateral ties, the minister said that since the establishment of the diplomatic relations the two countries had taken much effort to strengthen them. He praised the work of intergovernmental commissions on trade-economy and military-technical cooperation, collaboration in economic and investments spheres, and the bilateral business council. Read more