By Andrew Hammond

Reuters 

MANAMA: As martial law comes to an end in the Gulf Arab state of Bahrain this week, opposition activists are wondering whether they threw away what might have been the first real chance for democracy in the Gulf Arab region.

Shortly after Bahrainis converged on a roundabout in early February, the government offered dialogue with opposition parties on political reforms. But the talks failed to get off the ground.
Critics say the leading opposition party Al-Wefaq, headed by Sheikh Ali Salman, failed to show leadership during the unrest, allowing hard-liners within the ruling family and among the Shiite opposition to steer events.
“What a massively missed opportunity. Al-Wefaq should have had the conviction to stand ahead of the others and sit at the table. I’m sure they rue it,” one Western diplomat said.

Munira Fakhro of secular opposition group Waad says Al-Wefaq was paralyzed by fear of losing the street.
Salman says he didn’t agree with the escalation in protests or the open call for a republic, but acknowledges that they complicated the position of Al-Wefaq and the rest of the opposition.
“We did not go to public talks, but we talked behind closed doors. I met the crown prince three times alone during the crisis and my working team was meeting his working team almost daily. But there were no results until March 13,” he said.

That day the crown prince said again he was interested in dialogue, but specified this time that it would center on seven principles, including representative government and a parliament with full powers.
On March 14, Al-Wefaq and six other opposition groups said they wanted clarifications before entering direct talks with the crown prince.

The government and Sunni leaders have another theory for why the opposition appeared to drag their feet over negotiations: Al-Wefaq was waiting for approval from Iran.
“We think so. How else would you explain them not coming to the negotiating table?” said Sheikh Abdul-Aziz bin Mubarak al-Khalifa, Senior International Counselor at the Information Affairs Authority.
“We need a rational, practical leader who doesn’t look for religious blessings before he can embark on a political reform initiative,” he said.

Sheikh Abdullatif al-Mahmoud, leader of the mainly Sunni National Unity Rally which emerged as a counter-weight to the Shiite opposition during the unrest, goes further.
“In the second week of March their clerics were telling the Shiite masses that the Hidden Imam was about to come. That held them up going into talks since they thought the Shiite state was coming,” he said.
The twelfth Imam of mainstream Shiism disappeared in 9th-century Iraq and many believe he will return one day. Mahmoud also suggested the U.S. navy was coordinating with Al-Wefaq and Iran could have been planning a military intervention.

Al-Wefaq leaders roll their eyes at these accusations.
In a sign of the mistrust now prevailing, Mahmoud says that when news came in that Saudi troops were really coming, Salman stood up and announced: “We will seek the help of Iran.” Al-Wefaq says he never said that.