Bahrain’s crown prince spoke alongside senior Arab officials at a prestigious security forum on Friday, becoming the only Arab leader in attendance to explicitly condemn Hamas and call for the release of Israeli hostages.
“I unequivocally condemn Hamas,” Bahrain’s Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa said Friday at the beginning of his keynote speech at the 19th Manama Dialogue. “The attack on October 7th was savage and, how can I say it, horrific? They used it…indiscriminately. It didn’t matter that they killed women, children and the elderly.”
The crown prince’s comments contrasted with speeches by senior leaders of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the League of Arab States. His comments come two days after Bahrain, which first normalized diplomatic relations with Israel in 2020, suspended economic ties with Israel and recalled its ambassador over Bahrain’s “historic stand in support of the Palestinian cause.” It was released a week later.
This year’s rally, which concluded on Sunday, reflected the dramatic regional changes that have unfolded since the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack in Israel and Israel’s military response in Gaza. Last year’s elite conference hosted Israel’s national security adviser, but this year there were no Israeli speakers or guests, and most of the Arab leaders who spoke at the conference spoke about their relationship with Hamas in Gaza. They attacked Israel strongly in the war.
“It seems okay now to take hostages and take them away and talk about it as an act of war. That’s something we condemn,” Prince Salman said, adding that Hamas is taking hostages in Gaza. It called for a “hostage deal” in which the Israelis would free women and children held captive and Palestinian women and minor prisoners held in Israeli custody or in Israeli prisons. The latter primarily applied to stone-throwing against Israeli troops or Israeli civilians, while others were applied to more serious crimes.
“From this point forward, I call on Hamas to release the hostages, the women and children they are holding hostage, in exchange, and to the Israelis, in return, to release the women and children they are holding hostage. Then we will make some sense,’ and there will be days, weeks, months, even years of peace and tranquility,” Prince Salman said.
Prince Salman said it was “time to speak up”, noting that other Arab leaders had not yet called on Hamas to release the hostages. (Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Walid El-Khereij, speaking on Saturday, called for the release of the hostages without naming Hamas.)
He set out a series of “red lines” that he believes Bahrain must adhere to. Prince Salman said, “There must be no terrorism directed against the Israeli people from Gaza.” “There must be no forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza, now or in the future. There must be no re-occupation. There must be no reduction in the territory of Gaza.”
Like other Arab leaders who attended the Manama Dialogue, Prince Salman criticized Israel’s response in the weeks after October 7.
“I unequivocally condemn the air force operations in the Gaza Strip that have left more than 11,000 people dead, 4,700 of them children. Today, all of these actions are leading to the deaths of innocent people.” he said.