(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - The protests in Bahrain have been going on for weeks, but the ruling al-Khalifa monarchy hasn't budged.
Instead protesters have faced a government crackdown, aided by its powerful ally Saudi Arabia, which, along with Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar have dispatched their armed forces to crisis-hit Bahrain to quash anti-government protests in the Persian Gulf country.
PressTV has interview Rodney Shakespeare, Chairman of the Committee against Torture in Bahrain, from London to discuss the issue further more.
Q: I'm looking at the website for Bahrain Center for Human Rights. It says more than three hundred and seventy people have been detained or are missing within days of the imposition of the national safety including twelve women. When you compare it to Libya, the Americans have been saying that Muammar Gaddafi has lost his legitimacy, [and] that he has to go because of using force against his people. But no such calls on the part of the Americans on the Bahraini ruler to step down for pretty much the same reason.
Shakespeare: This is sinister fascism. The Bahraini rulers are maniac killers and they brought in another lot of killers, the Saudis. Behind this fascism is the USA and you quoted what US Secretary State Hilary Clinton said and people do not quite see the meaning. She said that any government may bring in foreign troops to kill their own citizens and that means that the American government may bring in foreign troops or use its own troops to kill American citizens. That fascism is now a lot in the Middle East.
If I may say so, America does not have long term interests in the Persian Gulf. It should get its oil on the market like anybody else. The problem is that an out-of-date American policy is linked with the Israeli regime giving either secret or open support to a Zionist Israel and that is the crux of the matter. And that explains why the Americans feel they can intervene in Libya because Libya is not crucial to the maintenance of the totalitarian, authoritarian regimes in the Middle East and their support for the Zionist Israel which is [a] paranoid attack dog and it's totally out of control and it has no intention ever allowing an independent Palestine.
So yes there was a deal between the Saudis who basically steamroller the other members of the (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Group to agree to giving support in Libya and, in exchange, the fascist have been let loose in Bahrain and the Americans ordered it. There are 4,500 troops in Bahrain and they said “do it.” Because if Bahrain or Saudi Arabia did not want to do it, the Americans could have stopped them immediately. I say it was an American order. It is fascism in Bahrain, fascism in the Middle East and it's a fascism which is coming to the United States and Hillary Clinton does said so.
Q: Why is Iran being blamed for what is happening in Bahrain and how likely is a military confrontation or any confrontation between the Saudi Arabia and Iran as a result?
Shakespeare: There are two countries which are deliberately trying to involve the Americans in a war with Iran. The first is Saudi Arabia. It is a country which is profoundly unstable. If they dare to ever have an election, 98 percent of the population will vote out the existing corrupt … regime and so they are playing their foreign card that is blaming everything that they can on Iran. The other one also playing the same foreign card is Israel and Israel's policy is to create chaos in the Middle East in which it can expand. Those are two countries more than anything else.
But unfortunately Zionist Israel also controls the foreign policy of the United States. So there are great forces all the time in the British newspapers, you get lines here in -- say -- the Daily Telegraph, all that making sly attacks on Iran and Iran has got nothing to do with it. Bahrain has admitted that … So you have got propaganda aimed at Iran. It is on the principle of Joseph Goebbels, the propaganda minister of Hitler, who said “if you are going to tell a lie, make sure that you tell a really big one.”
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