Al Khalifah neglecting rights of all Bahrainis: Commentator

Press TV has interviewed Saeed Shahabi, a political analyst and Middle East expert from London, about fresh protests across Bahrain amid the Manama regime’s heavy crackdown of peaceful protesters in the tiny Arab country.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: It seems that despite the fact that the protests against the Bahraini government have been continuing, the Yemeni authorities are cracking down and increasingly putting more pressure on Bahrainis specifically right now as we’re getting more reports of Zainab al-Khawaja being put into jail with her toddler.

Shahabi: It is clear that the regime is intent on exerting maximum punishment on the people by arresting people like Zainab al-Khawaja and her toddler, her child, and also taking many people in the past week alone at least 20-25 people have been taken into detention.

Then furthermore, the regime has been trying to silence the people by revoking their citizenship and deporting them, the latest of whom was deported three days ago, Ali Esfandiar, to Iraq and before him several people were deported. Many people, more than 270 native Bahrainis have been deprived of their citizenship.

So we are seeing a political scene in which there are two totally irreconcilable forces; the Bahrainis under Al Khalifah tribe, Al Khalifah tribe came from the outside and occupied the land by force, the people of Bahrain, the natives want to live on their own and they want to determine their own destiny.

This process will continue and at the same time with it as we have seen there will be more criminal activity by the regime, who has also especially now that he has the regime has been defeated in Yemen together with the Saudis. They want to exert revenge from the people was in Eastern province of Saudi Arabia or from Bahrain.

Press TV: Let’s not forget that very recently, Bahraini scholars led by Sheikh Issa Qassam penned a letter to the Al Khalifah regime telling them to give the right to the Yemeni people and not discriminate based on religion or religious rights. Now, what kind of a response did that letter receive?

Shahabi: The regime, first of all, does not recognize the Bahrainis, the natives, as citizens, this is number one. So, it will not reciprocate any correspondence from the people.

Secondly, it does not recognize the Ulema, the scholars, the religious leadership. In fact, two years ago the Al Khalifah took the decision to [dissolve] the supreme council of Ulema, of religious scholars, in Bahrain.

Thirdly, the scholars are duty-bound by their religious conviction to stand by the people and to ask for the right and for justice to dominate the scene. This is not what the regime wants.

So, the letter of the scholars, which was signed by about 40 senior scholars, was not received well by the regime and it is unlikely that it would ever respond to them, because then they will be treating them as equals. This is something that the regime does not want to do. This does not want to consider Bahrainis as equal in rights and existence as or equal to the Al Khalifah. Al Khalifah [is] supreme and compared to any Bahraini whether, Shia or Sunni.

So, I think the situation will continue to be tense and the relations will never be established again between the regime and the people who want to have serious political change.

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