Free Republic

Bahrain is strategically important and an incredibly diverse country, not only ethnically (with Arabs and those of Persian origin, not to mention South Asians and Filipinos if one includes the expatriate workers), but also religiously: The majority are Shi'ite Muslims, the ruling and more elite class are Sunni Muslims, and there are also a number of Christians and Jewish families, the latter mostly of Iraqi origin centuries ago. The Bahraini ambassador to the United States is Jewish. Because most of the opposition is Shi'ite, there is concern in American policy circles and among many journalists that a hidden Iranian hand...

Five men arrested in November in connection with a plot to blow up the only bridge connecting the island of Bahrain with Saudi Arabia and to assassinate Bahraini politicians are allegedly tied to Iran's Revolutionary Guard and reportedly received military training in Syria, according to information leaked to the media by authorities. The charges are the latest salvo in a regional struggle for power between Iran and the Arab Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, and come just after the U.S. revealed an alleged plot by Iran's Revolutionary Guard to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. in Washington, D.C.

President Barack Obama's administration has been delaying its planned $53 million arms sale to Bahrain due to human rights concerns and congressional opposition, but this week administration officials told several congressional offices that they will move forward with a new and different package of arms sales -- without any formal notification to the public. The congressional offices that led the charge to oppose the original Bahrain arms sales package are upset that the State Department has decided to move forward with the new package. The opposition to Bahrain arms sales is led by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Rep. Jim...

The United States said Monday it is relocating embassy staff and their families to new neighborhoods in Bahrain's capital Manama as part of safety precautions amid anti-government unrest. Tensions have remained high in Bahrain since a brutal government crackdown on pro-democracy protests in mid-March led to the death of 35 people. Sporadic violence has been on the upturn in recent weeks.

Yes, that's what the mainstream in Tehran call it, though it seems to be inspiring both camps... in Tehran. The Arab Spring has undoubtedly cast its shadow over the Islamic Republic of Iran and, perhaps, sent refreshing breezes through the streets of the Iranian capital and other cities. Certainly, too, the revolutions in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Syria, Bahrain and Yemen have had a direct impact on the bilateral relations between Tehran and each of these countries and even countries with diplomatic relations with the revolutionary countries, such as Turkey. Such large and politically central countries as Egypt and Syria would...

(CNN) -- The U.S. Navy said Iran's threat to block the strategically and economically important Strait of Hormuz is unacceptable. "The free flow of goods and services through the Strait of Hormuz is vital to regional and global prosperity," Navy 5th Fleet in Bahrain spokeswoman Cmdr. Amy Derrick Frost told reporters on Wednesday. "Anyone who threatens to disrupt freedom of navigation in an international strait is clearly outside the community of nations; any disruption will not be tolerated." The 34-mile-wide shipping channel leads in and out of the Persian Gulf between Iran and Oman. It is strategically important because tankers...

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia formally called for the formation of a Gulf Union on a backdrop of regional unrest and growing tensions with rival Iran. "I ask today that we move from a phase of cooperation to a phase of union within a single entity," Abdullah said during his address at the opening session of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council conference in Riyadh. "You must realise that our security and stability are threatened and we need to live up to our responsibilities," said King Abdullah. "Our summit opens in the shadow of challenges that require vigilance and a united...

Bahrain's King Hamad on Tuesday charged Syria with training opposition figures and provocateurs in his tiny island kingdom. Syria is training opposition figures in Bahrain, the Gulf island state's king said in an interview published on Tuesday, in which he also denied systematic rights abuses during state crackdowns on pro-democracy protests earlier this year. King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa told Britain's Daily Telegraph, "We have evidence that a number of Bahrainis who oppose our government are being trained in Syria .... I have seen the files and we have notified the Syrian authorities, but they deny any involvement." Syria is...

Nasrallah making his first public appearance since July 2008, Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah addressed hundreds of thousands of followers in the south part of Beirut on Tuesday, Dec. 6... Nasrallah reaffirmed his support for reforms in Syria, saying once again that "some people want to destroy Syria and compensate for their loss in Iraq. We remain on our stance; we support the reforms in Syria, and we are with a resisting government," he said... "Regarding the Golan Heights, head of the Syrian National Council stated that he will refer the issue to the international community, and therefore this serves...

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — An alleged Iranian-linked terror cell had contact with the Tehran's powerful Revolutionary Guard and planned attacks against high profile sites, including Saudi Embassy and a Gulf causeway linking Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, authorities in Bahrain claimed Sunday

The Arab League voted to suspend SyriaÂ’s membership at its meeting on Saturday and said it would impose economic and political sanctions against the regime of Bashar al-Assad as well as call for the withdrawal of Arab ambassadors from Damascus. The Arab foreign ministers meeting at the LeagueÂ’s headquarters in Cairo also called on the Syrian army to cease its involvement in the killing of civilians and invited the Syrian opposition for transition talks. Opponents of Assad were hoping that the Arab League would suspend SyriaÂ’s membership after Assad pressed ahead with a military crackdown on the unrest despite an...

The U.S. administration plans to build up the American military presence in the Persian Gulf after it withdraws the remaining troops from Iraq by the end of this year, The New York Times reported on Sunday, referring to diplomatic sources.

MacDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. — The Obama administration plans to bolster the American military presence in the Persian Gulf after it withdraws the remaining troops from Iraq this year, according to officials and diplomats. That repositioning could include new combat forces in Kuwait able to respond to a collapse of security in Iraq or a military confrontation with Iran.

Where's the so-called "angry Arab street?"When will the hypocritic Arab-Muslim world start giving a 'dime' about its own people. Arab-Muslim on Arab-Muslim crimes against humanity - routine. The "moderate" voice of Islamic-Arabs: "We can kill each other by the thousands!"(Syria, Hamah massacre - 1982, Daraa, Jisr al-Shughour and Hama massacres, mass torture of kids - 2011), Black September [Jordanians vs "Palestinians"] 1970 , Iraqis vs Iraqis since 2003, "Palestinians" VS each other (Hamas/Fatah 2007), "Palestinians" & Hezbollah using civilians (routine), Libyans (2011 massacres), Bahrainians [Shiite Apartheid VS Sunni], Algerians (100,000 dead in the 1970s') Yemen (2011), Tunisia (2011), Egypt (2011),...

Iraq's prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, warned Arab leaders in a speech on Thursday that Israel would benefit the most from the Arab Spring. "There is no doubt that there is a country that is waiting for the Arab countries to be ripped and is waiting for internal corrosion," he said in Baghdad. "Zionists and Israel are the first and biggest beneficiaries of this whole process." Mr. Maliki, the leader of Iraq's Shiite government, rarely mentions Israel in speeches. But he warned that those Arab countries experiencing democratic revolutions should be wary of Israel's taking advantage of the turmoil. "We...

US fleet may quit troubled Bahrain Hugh Tomlinson From:The Australian THE US Navy is looking at plans to move its Fifth Fleet away from Bahrain amid fears over violence and continued instability in the Gulf kingdom. Sources in Washington and the Gulf have confirmed a growing consensus around the idea of relocating the fleet after the recent crackdown on anti-government protests that left at least 32 dead. Politicians in Washington are concerned the navy's continued presence a few kilometres from the centre of the capital Manama lends tacit support to Bahrain's suppression of the opposition, amid allegations of systematic human...

A top Bahraini official accused Iran of scuttling a potential deal between the government and the opposition during a weekend dialogue that went nowhere. Fahad Ebrahim Shehabi, a spokesman for the Bahraini parliament, said the talks were going well until the main Shiite Muslim opposition, Wefaq, pulled out because of Iran, which opposes Bahrain's Sunni monarchy. "The withdrawal of Wefaq came early in the negotiation process, whereas other opposition figures who have been supporters of Wefaq stayed in the negotiation process," he told Babylon & Beyond in an interview. "This is because the decision is not in their hands; it...

The minister for antiquities Zahi Hawass announced he had resigned and warned tourist to stay away Egypt.There were reports of army and police raids in several Syrian towns and cities from the Lebanese border in west to the Iraqi border in the east. The suburbs of Damascus were again targeted after the largest protests to date on Friday. In the eastern town of Abu Kamal residents claim 100 members of the armed forced defected to the opposition.Bahrain's main opposition group Wefaq says it is pulling out of a national dialogue exercise with the government. More anger has been sparked...

Herewith then is a satirical effort to simplify the essence of Middle Eastern governments so that, in the immortal words of George W. Bush, "the boys in Lubbock" can read it. And, rather than symbolizing property, the cows here symbolize people, which -- funny enough -- is how most Middle Eastern regimes have traditionally viewed their populations.

A proposal to boost the Peninsula Shield, the Gulf Cooperation Council's combined military force, has been approved by its six member states, and could increase to include 100,000 troops before the end of the year... The Peninsula Shield currently consists of about 40,000 troops and has its permanent base in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province. The proposed expansion would be a huge boost from the previous force's incarnation, whose numbers fluctuated between 5-10,000 troops during its existence. Its permanent military base could also be moved to Bahrain... Back in March, when the protest movement in Bahrain was gaining the same kind...

<p>Germany has allowed the sale of 200 Leopard tanks to Saudi Arabia after decades of blocking heavy weapons sales to the kingdom, the Der Spiegel said Saturday.</p> <p>The federal security council approved the sale last week, the weekly news magazine said without citing sources.</p>

...what can be done to maintain and advance Saudi Arabia's unity and stability while it exists in such an explosive region that is experiencing extraordinary and unprecedented turmoil? It seems that there are only three possible options. First Option: Count fully on the United States to support Saudi Arabia in the event of any crisis that may erupt in the country regardless of its cause or nature. This option may have merit if the danger were external, but let's be clear: America will not intervene to protect our country or any other nation if the threat is internal. The proof...

The Kuwaiti emir made the remarks during a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi in Kuwait City on Wednesday. "We are assured of the goodwill and brotherly goals of the Islamic Republic of Iran and attach high significance to relations with Iran," the Kuwaiti emir stated. Not only the Kuwaiti people but also the people in other member states of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council have always been seeking good relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Kuwaiti leader added. Elsewhere in his remarks, the Kuwaiti emir said that consultation is a good way to help find...

Two hundred Iranian pro-regime students, members of the Basiji militia, stationed in the gulf city of Bushehr have sailed to Bahrain on their own flotilla to join the Bahraini Shiite protesters. In an interview with the Iranian Student's News Agency, Abbas Aalizadeh, public relations spokesperson for the so-called students claimed that this was "a spontaneous act on the part of the students and that they were not acting as anyone's proxy and the ships were privately owned." Aalizadeh added: "We are determined and we will stay on our path to see the mission through."

Member of Iranian Parliament Hossein Sobhani-Nia has said that the Iranian parliament will take reciprocal action if Bahrain closes the Iranian Embassy in Manama, reported Mehr news Agency. On Wednesday, Bahrain's parliament voted in favor of confiscating the Iranian Embassy building in Manama and converting it into government property.

Maulana Jawwad who led the protest stated that the Saudi government had launched attack on the innocent Muslims in Bahrain. "They are demolishing mosques and killing civilians. Those who are killed are innocent Muslims and are being targeted by the Saudi army," he said. Jawwad also decried the US led NATO intervention in Libya which has claimed hundreds of lives. "A democratic government is the need of hour, let the people decide and the government should also understand the writing on the wall that the popular uprising cannot be suppressed for long," he said. The protestors later reached Jantar Mantar...

Poland refuses to join NATO's military campaign against Libya's Muammar Gaddafi because of Europe's "hypocrisy" and inconsistency over human rights, Prime Minister Donald Tusk was quoted on Saturday as saying... said Europe risked creating an impression it only intervenes when oil supplies are at stake... "That is one of the reasons for our restraint...If we want to defend people against dictators, reprisals, torture and prison, that principle must be universal and not invoked only when it is convenient, profitable or safe," Tusk said. Like Libya's government, Syria, Yemen and Bahrain have sought to stamp out pro-democracy unrest by force but...

Egyptian Foreign Minister Dr. Nabil al-Arabi yesterday stated that the Gulf's security, stability, and Arab identity represent a "red-line" which Egypt rejects any transgression against. In related news, the Arab League informed its member-states that Qatar had officially nominated former Gulf Cooperation Council [GCC] Secretary-General Abdulrahman al-Attiyah, to replace Arab League Secretary-General Amr Musa, who is set to leave his position as head of the Arab League in May. During a press conference on Wednesday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil al-Arabi welcomed the results of the recent meeting of GCC foreign ministers. He said that the GCC states had "succeeded in...

"Among those arrested, for no good reason, was a good friend of our family: Shubbar (prounounced SHOE-bar) Hameed Ebrahim (right), aged 35. Shubbar is a beloved husband to his wife and father to two adorable young boys (left). He has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Kuwait University and an MBA from Bowling Green State University (2008) in Ohio, USA. Until Sunday night, he was working as a quality control engineer in Bahrain. But at 11:30 pm on Sunday, April 3, masked security forces burst into his house. His wife, who also studied at Bowling Green, described...

The United Nations boldly announced on its official website that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon engaged in a telephone conversation with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran to discuss the "situation in Libya, Bahrain and Yemen." According to the UN News Center, "during the telephone call yesterday, Mr. Ban reiterated his concern about the continued instability in Bahrain and Yemen, and underlined his call for maximum restraint and the importance of protecting civilians and the need to respect human rights." Mr. Ban emphasized that peaceful dialogue on certain political, economic and social reform is the only method to sustainable peace and...

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on regional rival Saudi Arabia to pull its troops out of Bahrain, where they are helping a Sunni monarchy put down a Shiite-led protest movement demanding equal rights and a political voice.

The United States has ordered Saudi Arabia's invasion of Bahrain, says an analyst, as the Persian Gulf country is engulfed by anti-government protests.

Kuwait's government has quit en masse in a dispute over the performance of several ministers in dealing with uprising in Kuwait's neighbor, Bahrain. According to the Financial Times, lawmakers had sought to question three ministers for supposed errors in office, in particular Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad al-Sabah, over his failure to respond to pointed criticism of the ruling al-Sabah family on Bahraini state television last week. The sectarian tensions behind Bahrain's uprising -- between the Shia majority and the Sunni royal family -- are a sensitive matter in Kuwait, which also has a Sunni monarchy... Kuwait is seen as unlikely...

A group of about three dozen natives of Libya, Syria and Bahrain gathered Saturday afternoon near the Federal Building on Wilshire Boulevard to call attention to the situations in their home countries. The protests, organized by local Arab community members on Facebook, have taken place for two weeks at the intersection of Wilshire. Syrian expatriates have also protested in in Anaheim and in front Syrian consulate in Newport Beach. Protesters waved flags and signs to passing motorists who honked in response to their chants in Arabic and English of 'We want the fall of the regime.' Asma Saad of Los...

Manama: The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states could sever their diplomatic relations with Iran, a Kuwaiti daily report said yesterday citing diplomatic sources. “A GCC arrangement is currently under way to adopt a significant step on relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” sources quoted by Al Watan daily said. “There is a strong inclination towards severing relations with Tehran. The GCC foreign ministers are expected to pass on the recommendation to the GCC leaders,” the unnamed sources were quoted saying. The GCC foreign ministers are particularly disturbed by Tehran’s “direct involvement” in the political unrest in the region and...

RIYADH, Apr 03, 2011 (AFP) - Gulf Arab foreign ministers meet Sunday in the Saudi capital to discuss Iranian interference in the region after a wave of unrest that has rocked the Arab world spilled over into some of the Western-backed monarchies. The extraordinary meeting comes after Tehran warned Riyadh that it was "playing with fire" by deploying troops in neighbouring Shiite-majority Bahrain while Kuwait claimed it had broken an Iranian spy ring. On Saturday, the new Gulf Cooperation Council secretary general, Abdullatif al-Zayani, condemned "Iran's meddling in the internal affairs of GCC countries" saying it "threatened security and stability...

Tensions and violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims are often in the news in countries like Iraq, Pakistan and Bahrain, but why are they at daggers drawn? swissinfo.ch: How did it come about that a Sunni minority should rule over a Shiite majority, as for example in Bahrain, where there are currently popular protests? Arnold Hottinger: This is a matter of power which has historical roots. Bahrain has a Sunni government but the majority of the population – 70 per cent - is Shiite. The example of Iraq, which also has a Shiite majority, can be easily explained in the...

It is ever so obvious that Barack Obama's heart is not in Libya, but like every President since Jefferson he has come to recognize the harsh contradictions as the nation's chief executive and campaigning for the office. His predicament is nothing new. Principle meets the real world. In the midst of the BP oil spill, I wrote that the President seemed "detached". This entire administration can now aptly described as "detached", but more importantly it can now be held accountable for gross contradiction in selectively determining "humanitarian" intervention. Obama dithered for three weeks on Libya, missing a window of opportunity...

This, in short, is the essence of a deal struck between the Barack Obama administration and the House of Saud. Two diplomatic sources at the United Nations independently confirmed that Washington, via Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, gave the go-ahead for Saudi Arabia to invade Bahrain and crush the pro-democracy movement in their neighbor in exchange for a "yes" vote by the Arab League for a no-fly zone over Libya - the main rationale that led to United Nations Security Council resolution 1973. The revelation came from two different diplomats, a European and a member of the BRIC group, and...

The terrorists are reaping the benefits from the chaos. Some well-known commentators have recently claimed that al-Qaeda has been diminished and made irrelevant because the popular uprisings in the Middle East are not motivated by radical Islam and are not controlled by al-Qaeda.This kind of sound bite commentary betrays a serious misunderstanding of al-Qaeda and the Middle East and misleads people to believe that al-Qaeda is fast becoming a past problem. These commentators seem to believe that al-Qaeda is nothing more than a fanatical, one-dimensional religious movement.While it is true that al-QaedaÂ’s ideology is rigid and fanatical, in the operational...

Bahrain's Blow-up--Amir Taheri - NYPOST.com - 17 Feb 2011 ... Bahrain, the smallest of the 21 Arab states, is often deemed a success ... " Second, the global recession has hit Bahrain hard, reducing job opportunities. Shiites claim that they're the victims of an undeclared "religious apartheid" that reserves the best jobs for Sunnis, including non-Bahraini Arabs.

Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah denied on Thursday it had given military training to Shi'ite Bahraini protesters who have been demanding reforms in the Sunni-ruled Gulf Arab kingdom. Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmed Al Khalifa said in an interview with pan-Arab Al Hayat newspaper on Wednesday that Hezbollah, which he described as a terrorist organization, had trained Bahraini "elements" in Lebanon. Last week Bahrain lodged a formal complaint to the Lebanese government over Iran-backed Hezbollah's offer of support to the protesters, highlighting growing tensions in the world's largest oil-exporting region between Sunni-ruled Arab countries and non-Arab Shi'ite power Iran....

Roughly 100 people were injured in Amman protests as Jordan -- perhaps emboldened by the lack of retribution suffered by other US allies -- became the latest Arab country to crack down hard. Jordan today became the latest Arab country to adopt violent repression as its response to protest -- inspired, perhaps, by seeing similar tactic used by US allies like Bahrain and Yemen with little retribution from Washington. This afternoon, police shut down a major protest camp in Amman, using water cannons. Mubarak-style thugs, widely believed to be hired by the regime, attacked the protesters with sticks and stones....

According to informed sources in Bahrain, Saudi Tanks surrounded Bahrain cities and villages to crack down tens of thousands protesters.

The Obama administration may not be lending arms to dissidents in the Middle East, but it is offering aid in another critical way: helping them surf the Web anonymously as they seek to overthrow their governments. Federal agencies - such as the State Department, the Defense Department and the Broadcasting Board of Governors - have been funding a handful of technology firms that allow people to get online without being tracked or to visit news or social media sites that governments have blocked. Many of these little-known organizations - such as the Tor Project and UltraReach- are unabashedly supportive of...

"This decision was taken after the irresponsible comments and stances from Lebanon against Bahrain, its people and leaders," the state-owned Bahrain news agency reported, citing a statement from the Civil Aviation Affairs department. On Tuesday, Bahrain's foreign ministry warned Bahrainis not to travel to Lebanon for their own safety and said the warning was issued because of threats and interference. Lebanon is the third country where Gulf Air and Bahrain Air, the two airlines based in Bahrain, have temporarily suspended services. Last week, the airlines cut routes to Iran and Iraq, two countries also featuring sizeable Shiite populations... Airlines across...

A statement by a retired UAE air chief also highlighted the geo-political complexities of the anti-Gaddafi coalition. Speaking at a security seminar in the emirates on Tuesday, general Khaled al Bu-Ainnain said the UAE had originally planned to send 24 fighter jets to enforce the no-fly zone. But it will now limit itself to humanitarian support in revenge for Western powers failing to back the UAE line that unrest in Bahrain is down to Iran. "The GCC [Gulf Co-operation Council] is supporting Bahrain, and they were not happy at all with the European and American attitude ... They think it's...

"An external plot has been fomented for 20 to 30 years for the ground to be ripe for subversive designs. I here announce the failure of the fomented subversive plot," King Hamad said, according to a report by the state Bahrain News Agency (BNA). He was speaking to officers of a Saudi-led Gulf Co-operation Council force that entered Bahrain last week ahead of a brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests, which was criticised by Washington, an ally of Bahrain, and by the United Nations. ...The king did not specify who was responsible for the plot but correspondents say his accusation was...

According to Al Amalam TV, Saudi occupaing army are demolishing many mosques in Manama, Bahrain.

Bahrain on Friday tore down the protest movement’s defining monument, the pearl at the center of Pearl Square, a symbolic strike that carried a sense of finality. The official news agency described the razing as a facelift. “We did it to remove a bad memory,” Bahrain’s foreign minister, Sheik Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa, said at a news conference. “The whole thing caused our society to be polarized. We don’t want a monument to a bad memory.” The destruction of the monument was part of a chain of events that, in a matter of days, turned Bahrain from a symbol of...