Bahrain has been openly critical of the Iranian regime recently, contending that “cells” are actively planning attacks on the tiny GCC nation — attacks that could topple the balance of power there. As evidence, some point to last July, when Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani issued a threat and a bomb attack killed two Bahrain policemen.
Officials also claim that some Iranian citizens have been training
in camps maintained by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, and that Iran has been smuggling weapons
through marine routes. They say that although the United States has reached an arms deal with Iran, it does not mean Iran’s gulf coast neighbors will turn a blind eye to such activities.
“We need to address Iran’s relations with its neighbors in the gulf,” Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmad Al Khalifa. “This was not included in the nuclear deal, and this is a serious impediment to Iran having a more normal relationship with the outside world.”
Al Khalifa said Iranians are stockpiling weapons to overcome
any missile defense systems that might be put into place in the Gulf Coast area. Bahrain currently contains a significant number of U.S. military installations.
For insight into the tense situation, the Gulf News Journal talked with Bob Darvish, an advisory board member of the Muslim
American Leadership Association and frequent participant in media reports on
global politics.
“There’s always going to be that kind of conflict,” Darvish said, citing tensions between
Shiite and Sunni Muslims, the interplay of many various Islamic sects in the
region, and political forces. “It’s a combination of different interests.”
Part of the problem, Darvish said, is a set of simmering
regional conflicts built up over centuries. For example, Saudi
interests overthrew a traditional ruling family in Yemen in the
middle of the 20th century. Now, Yemen is involved in a boiling civil war, with
Iranian and Saudi Arabian powers waging a proxy war against each other.
“We look away when Saudis oppress the Houthis in Yemen,” Darvish
said.
Darvish described Saudi Arabia as “powder keg,” citing religious and
political factions in the kingdom that he views as less than politically stable.
He said that in Bahrain’s case, it is a small country stuck in
the middle of a war between higher-level Islamic forces.
“They really don’t want to be involved,” Darvish said.
As far America’s role in the region, Darvish called it
a “balancing act.”
“Ideally, Iran would be a free democracy,” Darvish said,
suggesting that if Iranian-American relations improved through serious changes
in Iran, the U.S. could push further away from Saudi Arabia and
interests that have a lot of intersection with radical Wahhabi Islamic sects.
“My personal hope is that the Iranian government becomes
more democratic,” Darvish said.
