Bahrain Mirror: There is an entire network of advisers, senior ministers and former officials in Britain, who contribute effectively to the decisions of Bahrain's crown prince and prime minister, in both domestic and foreign policies. 

In this report, we explore the key points mentioned in a recent report published by the French "Intelligence Online" website.
Bahrain's Crown Prince and Prime Minister, Salman bin Hamad, maintains Bahrain's presence on the British policy agenda through investment instruments in London and through a network of advisers with experience working at the highest levels of the British government.
Sources indicate that Gerry Grimstone, who was a UK minister for investment from 2020 to 2022, was part of the British delegation that received the crown prince in London on July 3.

Grimstone joined London-based consultancy Equilibrium Global in January, which has been run by former British Defence Chief Nick Carter since 2022. It advises Salman bin Hamad to modernize Bahrain's state apparatus, which is overseen by the Crown Prince as president of the civil service since 2008.

The company also guides the decisions of Bahrain's Economic Development Board, the body tasked with attracting foreign investment to the country, and Grimstone is just one on a long list of former British civil servants to take up consulting work between London and Manama, in addition to a number of former British ambassadors to Saudi Arabia.

Grimstone, a former UK investment minister, headed a joint venture with Investcorp, a Manama-based financial company founded by Gulf sheikhs and traders and headed by former head of the Oman Air Force and former head of the Central Bank of Oman, Mohammed Mahfouz Al-Ardhi. It is not a coincidence that Investcorp's most important adviser is former British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon.
According to sources, Bahrain's crown prince sought to secure security support for the governance in Bahrain by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at a time when there is a rapprochement between Riyadh and Tehran. 

It is worthy to mention that Bahrain reopened a British naval support facility in Bahrain, Juffair HMS, in 2018.
Salman bin Hamad also resorted to strengthening his relations with former British officials, including former British Prime Minister Theresa May, and last November, the government of Bahrain allocated her more than 16000 pounds to finance a trip to Manama to express her views on "modern slavery". 

In the same month, Bahrain paid Conservative MP Kwasi Kwarteng and Nicholas Soames, the defense minister under former British Prime Minister John Major, to travel to Bahrain to participate in the IISS, the Manama Dialogue 2022.
Soames is very close to Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, both of whom graduated the same year from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and the crown prince paid for all his expenses to attend the Bahrain Grand Prix in early March.
In terms of Bahrain's foreign policy, it is very important to say that we were aware that the advisory team of the Bahraini foreign minister includes another former British foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, who was also present during the Bahraini crown prince's trip to London.
Hammond, who charges clients through his firm Matrix Partners, is also an advisor to the Kuwait Investment Office (KIO), the London arm of the Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA). 

These are only a sample of the names of senior British officials hired by the government of Bahrain for its benefit and who have a significant influence on what happens in the country. This is not to mention the unknown security advisers at work as well.

Arabic Version