Gulf Air's response was
"Please be advised that your ticket has been issued by a third party travel agent. In order to refund or obtain any kind of information, please refer back to your ticket issuing agent.
Passengers are entitled for Full refund to the original form of payment"
This was followed by a redirection to gulfairholidays, in KL, whose emails all come as TUI.DE.
Reading Gulf Air Holidays terms and conditions it quotes
"5.3 You, or any of your party, may cancel your travel arrangements at any time up to 72 hours prior to arrival without any penalty. Written notification from the lead person on the booking must be received at our offices. Since we incur administration costs in cancelling your travel arrangements you will be required to pay the applicable cancellation charge up to the maximum shown in the table below. Charges for cancellations are calculated from the date we receive your request or notification."
This sounds positive, however the cop out clause at the bottoms is
"We shall not be liable for any changes to or cancellation of your Bahrain Stopover due to events beyond our control. Examples of events beyond our control include, but are not limited to, war or threat of war, riot or civil disturbance, political unrest, terrorist activity or threatened terrorist activity, industrial disputes or threatened industrial disputes, strikes, fire, floods and other natural disasters, nuclear disasters, adverse weather conditions, acts of God, acts of government, closure of airports, failure of a carrier, a hotelier or other person to operate services for any reason."
Which if invoked gets them off the hook.