Bahrain: UAE Sends 500 Troops To Help ‘Defuse Tension’

United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan said Monday that his country sent 500 troops to Bahrain as a request from the island nation.

“The Bahrain Government asked us yesterday (Sunday) to look at ways to help them to defuse the tension in Bahrain, and we have already sent roughly around 500 of our police force, who are there,” Al-Nahyan said.

Al-Nahyan made the comments in Paris, France ahead of a meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

“The Saudis are there as well,” Al-Nahyan said, that the Gulf countries “aim to support the Bahraini Government and to get calm and order in Bahrain and to help both the Bahraini Government and people to reach to a solution which is for the best for the Bahraini people.”

The UAE force joins 1000 Saudi Arabian troops.

Troops from the GCC Peninsula Shield Force have started arriving to Bahrain in light of the current unrest the kingdom is currently witnessing. The GCC, or Gulf Cooperation Council, is a political and economic union involving six Arab states of the Persian Gulf: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The decision by the GCC to send troops to Bahrain coincides with a Bahrain parliamentary group Sunday appealing to King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa to enforce martial law.

The Independent Bloc called for the Bahrain Defence Force to intervene and protect national security and stability and preserve public and preserve properties, reported the state-run news agency BNA.

The group urged the King to enforce martial law for three months under article 36 –paragraph B and article 123 of the Bahrain constitution.