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Al Khalifa regime seeking to justify crackdown by terror attacks: Analyst

This file photo shows a Bahraini forensic police officer inspecting the site of a bomb blast in the village of Sitra, south of Manama, on July 28, 2015. (AFP)

Press TV has conducted an interview with Saeed Shahabi, political analyst in London, about the July 28 bomb explosion in Bahrain’s eastern island of Sitra.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Why do you think Bahrain is accusing Iran of that bomb attack?

Shahabi: Thank you very much. This is nothing new in the discourse of the regime of Bahrain. It has always sought to march backward in order to justify its crackdown on the people, its lack of reforms, and its bleak record of human rights. So, it has to find someone else who is responsible for all the illnesses that it has inflicted on the country. It [Al Khalifa regime] has said that before. How can you establish that Iran is behind the blast if it only happened in the last 36 to 48 hours? They blamed them within hours of the blast taking place; we don’t [know] who planted that bomb if there was indeed any bomb or whether it was a shooting out between people and the attackers who are mercenaries.

And they didn’t say who are the people who were killed and what nationalities they belong to because this regime depends on the foreigners. It’s not the people who depend on outside aid, but it’s the regime which is dependent on outside forces, inviting them like the Saudis, the Emirates troops, the Jordanian, the Pakistanis and so on and so forth. So, just to swiftly blame Iran is out of context and out of place at his moment until full investigation is carried out independently, then we may be able to establish if there was anything from the outside or whether it is something that happened by the police themselves… .

Press TV: How are the Bahraini people countering attempts by the Al Khalifa regime to incite sectarian strife in Bahrain?      

Shahabi: First of all, the regime is the force behind sectarianism like the Saudis. These are the Saudis and al-Khalifa who are behind the sectarian strife among the Arab and Muslim nations unfortunately. Number two, the Bahrainis from day one of their revolution have talked in Patriotic language, in national language, not in sectarian tone. Number three, the regime believes that if it manages to attract the Sunnis on its side then it will have polarized the political situation in the country to its advantage. However, as is the case with the Saudis, the sectarianism is a short-lived weapon, it cannot continue. It can easily be blunted when people realize how dangerous it is. Now, it is clear that ISIS which is supported by the Al Khalifa and by the Al Saudi is losing ground among the people and even the regimes who have supported it initially are now forced to at least declare stance against ISIS which represents the absolute form of sectarianism and extremism. So the regimes, dictatorial regimes, always find other complaints, other people, and other force to attack and to justify their collective punishments and their human rights abuses.

Al Khalifa foreign minister has disastrously failed in his mission. The European Parliament resolution indicates that his department’s activism within the diplomatic circles is failing. Bleak human rights reports and the various international NGOs which have attacked his regime’s performance are all indicators of his total failure. Now it is easy to blame Iran, it’s just something that is fashionable among those dictators to blame Iran or anyone else for their own internal failures. 


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