British parliamentarians call for end to secret funding for Gulf countries implicated in violations

SANAA, Jul. 6 (YPA) – A parliamentary group called on the British government to stop the secret funding of programs in the Gulf through the so-called “Gulf Strategic Fund”.

A group of British parties warned that the programs might implicate Britain in human rights violations in Gulf countries, especially Bahrain.

The British newspaper “Financial Times” said; A report prepared by the Parliamentary Parties Committee on Democracy and Human Rights in the Gulf said that “the Integrated Activity Fund is managed at all levels with the minimum required accountability, transparency and accuracy, despite its involvement in human rights violations.”

It also stated that the fund supported institutions “in which human rights violations are widespread, making Britain itself vulnerable to complicity in violations.” The report, released on Tuesday, indicated that the fund spent 53 million pounds between 2016/17 and 21/2020.

Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are Britain’s important partners in the Middle East, and the navy receives US and British bases.

There are more than 1,500 political prisoners in the small kingdom, and about 300 Bahrainis have been stripped of their citizenship, according to the Bahrain Institute for Democracy and Human Rights, which prepared the parliamentary group’s report.

The fund was established in 2016 and began financing programs in the Gulf a year later, under the supervision of the Government Office. It was replaced by the Gulf Strategic Fund in 2020, which is now under the supervision of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The institute’s report was endorsed by 10 of the 17 members of the group, including Sir Peter Bottomley, a conservative who accused the government of misleading and deceiving about the Integrated Activity Fund, which it claimed was for health, sports and culture and was not used in Bahrain’s security programs.