The silence of Bahrain's businessmen during the recent anti-government protests was deplored by the kingdom's prime minister yesterday.

'We were astonished that no voice rose from the trade sector against the unrest, although it was the first to suffer damage,' His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa said.

He expressed his dismay as he received at Gudaibiya Palace traders and businessmen, who flocked to renew their allegiance to the leadership and voice support for the measures taken by the government to maintain security and stability.

He said that traders shouldn't have kept silent, famed for their honourable stances all along Bahrain's deep-rooted history.

He deplored that some parties were 'motionless and speechless' as their country was facing a coup attempt to topple the regime.

'Bahrain was on the brink of slipping into the sectarian cauldron, with foreign hand fomenting unrest and fuelling animosities,' he said.

He deplored the fact that certain parties did not only stand aside, but they also condoned the acts of sabotage.

'They hurt us the most by aiding and abetting the sabotage of the Bahrain - the motherland that embraced them and was at the source of the status they now enjoy,' he said.

The Premier said that the damage would not have spared any party. 'The whole country would have been affected as certain parties sought to impose ideologies, which are totally alien to national interests and fundamentals,' he said.

He also found it deplorable that some Bahrainis, thought to be trustworthy, chose to almost bring Bahrain to the brink of abyss. -TradeArabia News Service