Bahrain Mirror: British Foreign Minister, Boris Johnson said accused the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, one of his country's strongest allies in the region, of "participating in proxy wars" and "twisting and abusing religion" for political ends.

Johnson criticized the "weak leadership" in the issues that stir division in the region, saying that "leaders in the Middle East were not willing to reach out beyond their own Sunni, Shia or other religious group to bring people together and to develop a national story again." 

"There are politicians who are twisting and abusing religion and different strains of the same religion in order to further their own political objectives," he said. "That's one of the biggest political problems in the whole region," he went on to say.

"And the tragedy for me -- and that's why you have these proxy wars being fought the whole time in that area -- is that there is not strong enough leadership in the countries themselves," the UK Foreign Minister went on to say.

In response to Johnson's statement, British Prime Minister Theresa May's spokeswoman confirmed, "Those are the Foreign Secretary's views. They are not the government's position on Saudi and its role in the region." "The Foreign Secretary will be in the region this weekend. He will be in Saudi Arabia on Sunday and will have the opportunity to set out the way the UK sees its relationship with Saudi and the work we want to do with them and other partners to bring an end to the appalling conflict in Yemen," the spokeswoman added.

The UK Prime Minister was this week in Manama to take part in the GCC Summit (Tuesday and Wednesday), during which she said that "the Gulf's security is that of the UK".

Arabic Version