The 6th IISS Regional Security Summit, The Manama Dialogue has successfully concluded after three days of policy addresses and bilateral meetings between senior government, parliamentary, and other distinguished delegates.
The summit was attended by over 300 delegates and 25 government delegations, including Iran who attended at the ministerial level for the first time since 2006.
On Friday, 12 December, Al Arabiya hosted a provocative TV debate ‘Perspectives From The Manama Dialogue’ featuring: Sh Khalid Bin Ahmed Bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bahrain; Ali Muhammad Al Anisi, Chairman of the National Security Agency and Head of the Presidential Office of Yemen; Jeffrey Feltman, Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs at the US Department of State; and Dr Mamoun Fandy, IISS Senior Fellow for Gulf Security and Corresponding Director of the IISS-Middle East.
The panellists discussed security and foreign policy themes—including the Houthis in Yemen, Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and progress in Iraq—for the Dialogue, as well as interacted with the audience. Clips from the debate will run on Friday evening, 2000hrs GMT, 18 December 2009 on Al Arabiya and Bahrain TV.
In order of appearance, speakers in the Plenary Sessions included: Manouchehr Mottaki, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Iran; Sh Khalid Bin Ahmed Bin Mohamed Al Khalifa, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bahrain; Hoshyar Zebari, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iraq; Vecdi Gönül, Minister of Defence of Turkey; M K Narayanan, National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of India; Kazuya Shinba, Senior Vice Minister for Defence of Japan; Masoom Stanekzai, Advisor to the President on Home Security of Afghanistan, Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan; Christian Schmidt, Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister of Defence of Germany; Ali Muhammad Al Anisi, Chairman of the National Security Agency and Head of the Presidential Office of Yemen; General David Petraeus, Commander of US Central Command; and Dr Mohammed Abdul Ghaffar, Advisor to HM the King on Diplomatic Affairs and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Bahrain Centre for Strategic International and Energy Studies.
In addition to saturating Bahrain with senior ministers and new bilateral relations, the Manama Dialogue also transcended into social networking sites as Sh Khalid Bin Ahmed Bin Mohamed Al Khalifa and Lara Setrakian (ABC News) tweeted on Twitter, among others.
A selection of free broadcast quality video clips from The Manama Dialogue is available at www.thenewsmarket.com. The video can be used for television, embedding in internet stories, radio, PowerPoint and other applications.
As they become available, the transcripts from the speeches will be available at www.iiss.org/manama-dialogue
To continue the enormous momentum of The Manama Dialogue throughout the year, the IISS is pleased to announce that the doors on its newest international office will open in Bahrain in May 2010.
With a permanent presence, the IISS is committed to furthering highly analytical research on a plethora of Gulf security issues, including environmental and economic.
In particular, the IISS will host the first Bahrain Global Forum from 14 to 16 May 2010, bringing together key political figures, finance and treasury ministers and officials, business people, economists, strategists and leaders of international economic and financial institutions.
The International Institute for Strategic Studies: www.iiss.org
