Bahrain’s foreign ministry has summoned Iraq’s ambassador in Manama to protest against remarks by Iraqi officials denouncing the execution of three men convicted of a 2014 bomb attack which killed an Emirati policeman and two Bahraini officers.
Iraqi vice president Nouri Al Maliki called the execution “an ugly crime” and said it put the Bahraini government in a position of being accused by the international community of systematic killing of its opponents.
The Bahrain foreign ministry said Mr Al Maliki’s remarks and comments by the Iraqi foreign ministry spokesman amounted to an “unacceptable interference” in Manama’s internal affairs.
Bahrain says the execution was carried out after a lengthy judicial process that convicted the three men, Abbas Al Samea, 27, Sami Mushaima, 42, and Ali Al Singace, 21.
“The undersecretary of regional and GCC affairs, ambassador Waheed Mubarak Sayyar, asserted the kingdom of Bahrain’s condemnation and its deep rejection of the remarks ... and demanded they be conveyed to the Iraqi government,” the state BNA news agency said on Monday.
Bahrain has recently accused Iraqi groups of providing military training and support for militants behind bomb attacks that have killed several policemen in recent years.
Relations between Baghdad and its Arab neighbours, including Bahrain, have been frosty since US forces toppled Sunni president Saddam Hussein in 2003 and replaced him with a Shiite-led government.
* Reuters
