MANAMA, 30 December 2003 — Bahrain is to regulate the collection of funds through charities and their eventual distribution but the move is not a response to foreign pressure, a Bahraini official told AFP on Sunday.
Bahrain will “put in place regulations related to the collection of donations” the official said, on condition of anonymity.
But he added that “at the same time, these regulations come as part of efforts to complete the regulatory environment in Bahrain and are not a response to external pressures.”
Bahrain’s Cabinet agreed on Sunday to regulate the collection of funds from charities and how they are dispersed, the official Bahraini News Agency reported.
These regulations were put in place “to confirm their (charities’) humanitarian objectives, for which they collect money,” BNA said.
The official said that the new measures “aim to track money that is entering and leaving Bahrain,” and that “fighting terror and money laundering” are also main objectives.
“The new regulations are, in general, part of a normal operation because we are completing the regulatory infrastructure and modernizing laws and regulations in order to complement the situation around us,” the official added.
The official denied that there were any indications that money from Bahraini charities was going to terrorist groups. “We don’t doubt any of our charities,” he said.
Bahrain-Qatar Joint Commission
Bahrain and Qatar said their joint commission would resume meetings in February after an interruption of nearly two years following a visit to Doha by the Bahraini king.
The one-day visit “opened a new page” in relations between the two Gulf neighbors, King Hamad said after talks with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Hamad ibn Khalifa Al-Thani.
A joint statement issued after the meeting said the joint commission would meet in Manama in the second part of February 2004 to “boost brotherly cooperation and review proposed (common) projects.”
The commission was formed after a decades-old territorial dispute between Bahrain and Qatar was resolved by the world court in March 2001.
Relations between Manama and Doha have been chilly since the commission stopped meeting in the first half of 2002. One of the problems is believed to be Qatar’s frequent arrest of Bahraini fishermen after they stray into its territorial waters.
Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad ibn Jassem ibn Jabr Al-Thani denied that there were disputes between the two sides.
The talks between the two leaders had been “candid, marked by a desire to boost ties,” he told reporters.
