The British capital, London, last Saturday hosted the first conference dedicated to the cause of the peoples of the Gulf, who have been subjected to severe government repression since the outbreak of the US-Israeli war on Iran, launched from American bases located in those countries.

The conference was attended by academics, human rights activists, political activists, and researchers specialising in Kuwaiti, Bahraini, Qatari, Saudi and Emirati affairs.

Participants at the conference said the peoples of the Gulf are facing crimes aimed at altering the demographic composition of their societies through the revocation of citizenship, and that the resources of their countries have become harnessed to serve repressive ruling families and US bases, rather than their peoples.

They noted that there has been an escalation in executions of prisoners of conscience, as well as cases of arbitrary detention and the suppression of public freedoms, requiring Gulf peoples — who now suffer from the same repressive practices and share a common fate — to unite.