US ‘alarmed’ by Bahrain’s decision on Sheikh Qassim
The US is “alarmed” by a decision to revoke the citizenship of senior Shia cleric Sheikh Isa Qassim in Bahrain, home to the Fifth Fleet of the United States Navy.
Qassim was stripped of his Bahraini citizenship earlier on Monday, according to the Persian Gulf state’s media.
The decision has even pushed US officials to react, which is considered a rare move as Washington mostly ignores the Al Khalifa ruling family’s crackdown on the tiny country’s Shia population.
"We are obviously alarmed by today's decision to revoke the citizenship of Shia cleric Sheikh Isa Qassim,” said US State Department spokesman John Kirby. “We are unaware of any credible evidence to support this action and that assessment is further supported by the fact that he did not appear to even have the opportunity to challenge the charges against him before the decision was made, so we're going to be following this, obviously, very closely."
The US has been a staunch supporter of the royal family to keep its Fifth Fleet headquarters up and running in the capital Manama, although rights groups continue censuring the Monarchy’s suppression of the dissent.
Since the beginning of Arab world’s Islamic Awakening in 2010, Washington claims it supports “reforms” in the country.
Kirby toned down his statement by saying that the US is concerned about “Bahrain's success and about Bahrain being able to continue to deliver on the kinds of reforms that are necessary for the Bahraini people and our concern is that actions like this could potentially set those reforms back, which we don't think is in the best interest of Bahrain or the Bahraini people.”
Manama’s move is part of a more extensive plan to silence the majority Shia population of the island nation.
Less than a week ago, the country’s largest Shia political group, al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, was suspended and all its assets were frozen.
The Arab sheikhdom is a key ally of the US in the region, which has, among other things, provided the regime with a relatively constant media blackout to have the chance to beat up pro-democracy and peaceful protesters.
The US Fifth Fleet, which was established in 1944, was deactivated two years after the end of World War II but was revitalized in 1995.
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