May in Bahrain to find new clients for UK arms makers: Analyst

UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s trip to Bahrain is an attempt to find more customers for British-made weapons in the wake of the referendum to withdraw from the European Union (EU), says an analyst in New York.

Ian Williams, a senior analyst at Foreign Policy in Focus, said May’s visit to the tiny Persian Gulf state was intended to save the country’s economy from the possible consequences of Brexit.

Addressing the the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council's annual summit in Manama on Wednesday, May said Britain planned to invest more than $3.7 billion in the region over the next decade.

“Well, it seems a bit superfluous, taking dollars to the (Persian) Gulf is - in the old British saying - taking coals to Newcastle,” Williams told Press TV on Wednesday. “They no more need dollar investments than they need oil.”

“The real point of this is the security cooperation,” he said, noting that as the UK is leaving the EU, it is looking to find new markets for its weapons industry, which is “one of the few industries” in which the UK remains competitive.

May is trying to follow the footsteps of former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who had secretly struck major arms deals with Saudi Arabia, Williams argued.

The Saudis have been the biggest customer of UK-made weapons, despite the Riyadh regime's unprovoked onslaught in Yemen.

“I suspect that she sees the (Persian) Gulf as a potential to sell yet even more weapons,” he explained. “I mean they will sell them to other places but the (Persian) Gulf actually has the money to pay for them.”

Before departing London for the two-day visit, May said she wanted to lay the foundations for “a new chapter” in ties with Persian Gulf countries as the UK was leaving the EU.

Williams said May was aiming to rekindle relations with countries that London had neglected once it was focusing on Europe as its prime target.

“It would not surprise me if she suddenly rediscovered an affection for the old commonwealth countries like New Zealand and Canada and Australia” as well, the analyst concluded.

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