From: Terje Rod-Larsen -( '> To: mleevacation(kgmail.com"' cleevacationgginail.com> Subject: Fw: (s)3/28 Wires (PM): Bahrain-Kuwait/Oman/Qatar-Libya/Lebanon/UAE/Israel-Palestians Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2011 01:08:01 +0000 From: Fabrice Aidan To: Terje Rod-Larsen Sent: Mon Mar 28 16:01:11 2011 Subject: Fw: (s)3/28 Wires (PM): Bahrain-Kuwait/Oman/Qatar-Ubya/Lebanon/UAE/Israel-Palestians Bahrain FM Says No Plan for Dialogue Under Kuwait's Mediation AFP Mar. 28, 2:11pm ET Manama Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmed Al Khalifa denied on Monday that any role could be played by Kuwait to mediate to defuse the tiny Gulf nation's ongoing political headache. "There is no plan for dialogue under the tutelage of Kuwait. Any talk about Kuwait's mediation is baseless," the minister said on his Twitter page. A member of Bahrain's largest Shi'ite opposition group Wefaq said on Sunday that his group accepted an offer by Kuwait to mediate in talks with the government to end a political crisis in kingdom. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a regional bloc grouping all six Gulf nations, welcomed the report about the Kuwaiti mediation and its Secretary-General Abdulrahman al-Attiyah hoped that initiative would support security and stability in Bahrain. Bahrain has been swept by anti-government protests, most by majority Shiite, for more political and economic reforms and some of the protesters have called for bringing down the county's ruling family led by King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, a strong U.S. ally, and establishing a constitutional-based monarchy. Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, is ruled by the Sunni Muslim al-Khalifa family where the majority Shiite population said they are facing discrimination in jobs and other services. The kingdom denies such claims. Oman protests carry on despite sultan's reforms AFP Mar. 28, 2:42pm ET Muscat Pro-reform demonstrators are keeping up a sit-in demonstration in Muscat and other Oman cities des