Bahrain PM off-message over Qatar

Bahrain’s veteran prime minister Prince Khalifa Bin Salman Al-Khalifa took the region by surprise in early May when he phoned Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani to offer Ramadan greetings. Khalifa’s gesture drew a swift rebuke from others in Manama, where cabinet affairs minister Mohammed Bin Ebrahim Al-Mutawa said the contact did not represent the government’s official position. Neither did it affect Bahrain’s commitment to the Qatar boycott, launched in June 2017.