Bahrain's capital Manama
Posted on 09/06/2010 4:25:06 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
Bahrain has hinted that Iran was implicated in an alleged plot to overthrow its government after 23 prominent opposition leaders were charged with terrorism offences in the US-backed Gulf kingdom.
Authorities in the island state, which serves as a US naval base, made the arrests during weeks of unrest in the run-up to a parliamentary election next month.
Bahrain's capital Manama
Officials said activists were members of "a terrorist network with international support" and were planning a campaign of "violence, intimidation and subversion".
"This sophisticated terrorist network with operations inside and outside Bahrain has undertaken and planned a systematic and layered campaign of violence and subversion," said Abdulrahman al Sayed, a government prosecutor.
"The leaders of the network have been accused of several crimes including the planning and instigation of violence, conducting a wide ranging propaganda campaign against the Kingdom and seeking to overthrow the regime by force."
Although the foreign state behind the purported plot was not named, it was widely understood that Iran was the focus of official suspicion. The Bahraini government, which is dominated by the country's Sunni minority, has frequently accused its Shia Muslim dissidents of collaborating with co-religionists in Tehran.
Hardliners in Iran have sometimes described Bahrain as Iran's "14th Province". It is the only Gulf State with a Shia majority. Accounting for 70 per cent or more of the population, the community has been marginalised for decades and resentment at the much richer Sunni elite has festered.
Western military strategists say Iran is desperate to gain a foothold on the Arabian Peninsula to further its regional clout and believes that Bahrain, an archipelago in the Persian Gulf, represents the best opportunity of achieving that ambition.
Although tiny, with a population of just 800,000, Bahrain's geographical location gives it a
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Iran is certainly hard at work making as many enemies as possible. Now they’re targeting Bahrain.
YEAH a few years back the Shias were like 17% but they breed like rats and our democrats now have a majority.
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