"There is a significant decline in sectarian violence inside the Iraqi border, I am happy to report," Mr Al Hashimi told a Press conference on the sidelines of the final day of the Manama Dialogue security conference, being held at the Ritz-Carlton Bahrain Hotel and Spa.
"Now the violence, you are fully aware now, is inside the Sunni community and there is also internal violence inside the Shia community. "So it is no longer now that that violence is sectarian so we are not afraid that this will spill out into our neighbouring countries."
By GEOFFREY BEW
MANAMA: Bahrain and the Gulf have nothing to fear about sectarian violence spreading to the region from Iraq, the country's Vice-President Dr Tariq Al Hashimi declared yesterday.There had been a dramatic reduction in violence between Sunnis and Shias in the war-torn nation, as well as in instances of cross-border smuggling of weaponry and explosives that help fuel such clashes," he said.
But Dr Al Hashimi warned there was now a growing trend of clashes within sects, which threatened to be no less bloody.
"There is a significant decline in sectarian violence inside the Iraqi border, I am happy to report," Mr Al Hashimi told a Press conference on the sidelines of the final day of the Manama Dialogue security conference, being held at the Ritz-Carlton Bahrain Hotel and Spa.
"Now the violence, you are fully aware now, is inside the Sunni community and there is also internal violence inside the Shia community. "So it is no longer now that that violence is sectarian so we are not afraid that this will spill out into our neighbouring countries."
