Tuesday, March 22, 2011

By Erika Solomon and Lin Noueihed
Reuters

MANAMA: Bahrain’s king said a foreign plot against his Sunni-led island state had been foiled, and the head of the Gulf Cooperation Council warned that interference by Shiite Iran in the Gulf Arab states would not be tolerated.
Confrontation between Sunnis and Shiites has stirred international tension in the oil-exporting region, gripped by its worst unrest in years.

“An external plot has been fomented for 20 to 30 years until the ground was ripe for subversive designs … I here announce the failure of the plot,” King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa was quoted as telling troops in a report by state news agency BNA. Had the plot succeeded, he said, it could have spilled into neighboring states.
The king thanked troops brought in from fellow Sunni-ruled neighbors to help quell weeks of protests by mainly Shiite Bahrainis calling for reform.

Around 1,000 Saudi soldiers and 500 police officers from the UAE entered Bahrain to protect government facilities during the unrest.
Kuwaiti naval vessels arrived in Bahrain Monday to help protect its waters as part of a Gulf defense pact, Bahrain’s state news agency said.

Bahrain is the base for the U.S. Fifth Fleet, central to U.S. military power in the oil-rich region.
King Hamad did not say who was behind the plot but his comments came after a day of tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions between Bahrain and Iran.

GCC Secretary-General Abdulrahman al-Attiyah told reporters in Abu Dhabi: “We reject any intervention in our internal affairs and among these countries [intervening] is Iran,” after he was asked about troops from Saudi Arabia and the UAE being sent to Bahrain.
Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television quoted Bahrain authorities as saying communications systems had been sent from Iran to Bahrain’s opposition.

The ferocity of last week’s crackdown, in which Bahrain called in Gulf troops, imposed martial law and drove protesters off the streets, has stunned majority Shiites, the main force behind the protests, and enraged Tehran. Iran has complained to the U.N. and asked neighbors to join it in urging Riyadh to withdraw forces from Bahrain.

Bahrain expelled Iran’s charge d’affaires Sunday, accusing him of contacts with opposition groups, a diplomatic source said.

The Iranian ambassador was asked to leave last week. Iran expelled a Bahraini diplomat in response.
Most protesters have campaigned for a constitutional monarchy, but calls by hard-liners for the overthrow of the monarchy have alarmed Sunnis.

Shiites across the region have complained for decades of oppression by Sunnis, dominant in the Arab world.
Bahrain’s political crisis has been the subject of a media war between pro-Iranian television channels and Bahraini state media. Each side accuses the other of incitement.
An uneasy calm spread through the city as Bahrainis returned to work and there were fewer checkpoints in the streets, though helicopters still buzzed over Shiite areas.

Shaking their fists and shouting “Down with Khalifa,” about 2,000 people joined the fourth funeral procession in as many days for someone whose death during the unrest is blamed by Shiites on the authorities.
Waving black and Bahraini flags, mourners gathered in the Shiite village of Buri to bury 38-year-old father of three Abdulrusul Hajair, found Sunday apparently beaten to death.

“We want to know the reason for this ugly crime and who is behind it,” said Youssef al-Buri, his cousin.
Another Bahraini Shiite, who was found dead after he went missing for days was also buried Monday. Police cars and military armored vehicles surrounded the entrance to Buri but did not interfere with the funeral.

Bahrain’s largest Shiite opposition group Al-Wefaq said police told Hajair’s family to collect his body from the hospital Sunday.
Speaking at a 15-minute protest in front of the U.N. building in Manama Sunday, a former Al-Wefaq Parliament member said almost 100 people had gone missing in the crackdown.