Bahraini ambassador attends UANI event in New York

New York, Sept. 26 (BNA): Bahrain Ambassador to the United States, Shaikh Abdullah bin Rashid Al Khalifa attended the United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) event as a speaker. This came on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, in the presence of the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, who was a featured speaker in the event. The ambassador highlighted the major security threats and challenges posed by the Iranian regime and its network of terrorist organizations, both regionally and internationally, especially in light of recent abuses and attacks that threaten the safety of international navigation and global energy security, the latest being the attack on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia. Shaikh Abdullah bin Rashid also pointed out that Bahrain over the past four decades has combatted the Iranian regime that aimed to acquire deceptive methods and false allegations, including the statements of some Iranian officials that violated Islamic and international principles such as the principle of good-neighborliness and non-interference in internal affairs, and non-encroachment on the sovereignty of States, through their support for extremism and terrorist organizations by money, training and equipment. Ambassador Al Khalifa highlighted the seriousness of the Iranian nuclear program and its severe strategic and geopolitical implications if the regime was able to acquire nuclear weapons, and therefore the need for the international community to put an end to it. He added that the Iranian nuclear program, even if its safety was guaranteed, still poses a grave environmental security threat to the Arabian Gulf region as the technologies used are backward and outdated. As for the Iranian ballistic missile development program, Shaikh Abdullah stressed the danger posed by the Iranian regime's arsenal of missiles to regional and international security, as evidenced by its reckless arming of Houthi coupists, and that the arsenal of this system is no longer more accurate, but it is also capable of carrying nuclear warheads. He reiterated his regret that the international community has avoided confronting the Iranian regime on the network of terrorist organizations it has created in the Middle East and thus threatening the regime of Arab countries as a whole, noting that this is due to the international community's focus on the nuclear and ballistic programs, without realizing the dangerous strategic dimension of such a terrorist network that seeks to marginalize the existing regional order. The ambassador stressed Bahrain’s pivotal role as a strategic ally of the US to counter the Iranian regime's attempts to destabilize regional and international security and stability. Shaikh Abdullah also added that the Kingdom is not only participating in the seven US-led Warsaw Process, but will host the meeting of the Maritime and Air Navigation Security Conference in October and is the first country in the region to participate in the International Alliance for Security. He stressed that Bahrain has always been proactive in engaging the United States in its fight against terrorism, as the Kingdom was the first country to engage with the United States in its operations against Da’esh.