Bahrain Shiite bloc calls for majority-led govt

Bahrain's main Shiite opposition bloc has reiterated its demand for a government led by the parliamentary majority, in a statement released after a dispute during a national dialogue. "The solution to the political crisis is through the acceptance of (its) demands," and that "any other option would only deepen the crisis," the Islamic National Accord Association (Al-Wefaq) said in a statement on Tuesday. Since the July 2 debut of the national dialogue, which is aimed at forwarding political reforms after Shiite-led protests were crushed in a bloody crackdown in March, Al-Wefaq has called for a government led by the parliamentary majority. The group won 18 of 40 seats in the most recent parliamentary elections, but its MPs resigned to protest violence against demonstrators. On Tuesday, a Sunni representative in one of the dialogue sessions called Shiites "naturalised rejectors (of Islamic orthodoxy)," in reference to the Iranian origin of some members of the community to which a majority of Bahrainis belong, Al-Wasat newspaper reported. In reaction, Al-Wefaq's representatives walked out of the meeting, which was dealing with reforming naturalisation laws. Naturalisation was a major issue in the February-March protests in Bahrain, where many Shiites accuse the kingdom's Sunni rulers of naturalising Sunnis in a bid to change Bahraini demographics. Al-Wefaq said in the statement that it would, however, not be "intimidated by manoevers of sabotage" at the dialogue. Shiites are a majority of the population of Bahrain, which is ruled by a Sunni dynasty. The bloc decided at the last minute to participate in the dialogue, encouraged by the international community, including the United States, whose Fifth Fleet is based in Bahrain.