US President Barack Obama has met the Bahraini crown prince and expressed Washington's unwavering support for the Manama regime.
In the meeting, Obama also voiced his “strong support for the crown prince's ongoing efforts to initiate the national dialogue.”
Director of Institute for [Persian] Gulf Affairs (IGA), Ali al-Ahmed, joined Press TV from Washington to comment on why the US keeps supporting the Al Khalifa regime despite international condemnation of Manama's gross human rights violations.
Press TV: What is your assessment of the Bahraini Crown Prince [Salman bin Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa]'s trip to the US? Does it seem to you that everything is going in favor of Bahraini monarchy and not necessarily in favor of the people of Bahrain?
Ahmed: I think Washington made its decision early. To receive the crown prince is itself a big gesture in support of the monarchy. That is not new; receiving the Foreign Minister [Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa] before him last week is also an indication of the US policy towards Bahrain. The crackdown continues during this time and people have died during his presence in Washington and the US did not show any concern for that.
So you are seeing a policy of fully supporting the monarchy in Bahrain. They [the US officials] have not extended the same invitation or allowed the opposition [into the US]. It is strange that the US is calling on the monarchy to speak to the opposition [while] the US bars the same opposition from entering the US. So they are speaking from both sides of their mouth on this one.
Press TV: We have seen horrifying pictures coming out of Bahrain. We have seen images of the police directly shooting at mourners during a religious procession in Bahrain. When such images are coming out and being played across the world and the US and the UK react in this way, and in fact many other world governments who say that they are calling for dialogue show their reaction by supporting the Bahraini regime, does that put down any hope for the success of this revolution or does it have the opposite effect that it further motivates people?
Ahmed: I think it has the effect of supporting the revolution because in order for a revolution to succeed, they have to believe in themselves and to move forward without waiting for the US and the good thing about it, and I described it before, that Obama is siding fully with the regime, giving the people a clear look at what they should do. I think the majority of the people will at the end prevail, regardless of the US attempt to quell the revolution for the reason that Obama needs the Bahraini officials; the Bahraini crown prince is not only involved in the killing and torture of the protesters, but he is also involved in a huge massive corruption. To meet him is to endorse him and really the idea here is that he [Obama] is endorsing what the Bahraini monarchy is doing.
He [Obama] hasn't asked him to release a single prisoner. To say that the US is unable to do so is really a farce because the US can tell the Bahraini monarchy to do whatever it wishes, but unfortunately Obama has shown his [true] color: that he is not a person who supports democracy, he is a person who supports absolute monarchies who torture doctors, nurses and kill children so this is the real American policy in Bahrain.
Press TV: How important is the decision by the World Motor Sport Council of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile to allow Bahrain stage this year's popular Formula One (F1) auto race, the Grand Prix in October. Do you think that it is essentially symbolic of the West's reaction to all of this and do you think it is important in the history of how things have been going currently in Bahrain?
Ahmed: I think it shows you that if you have money, you can buy anybody and Formula One is an example of that. It doesn't need to have that race in Bahrain but because few thousand dollars made it possible, I am not talking about even hundreds of thousands, I am talking thousands of dollars that this Formula One board made the decision based on the thousands of dollars worth of gift given to them by the Bahraini government. That decision is not bad in the sense it will be used by the Bahraini people to wage a large scale protest. Imagine in October when the Formula One is in Bahrain, you see massive uprising and the police shooting the protesters. Formula One will be legally held responsible by the victims in the international courts in the UK, the US and in other countries.
So they are not facing ridicule not only from their team but also they will have a legal responsibility because they are covering up and trying to beatify a monarchy that is oppressive, a regime that is killing its people, and because they are helping in a direct way to kill and torture Bahrainis. So they are legally responsible for anything that happens in that time and international lawyers will tell you that they will be part of the people who shoot and torture Bahraini citizens.
Press TV How things are currently going for the Bahrain economy? It lifted the emergency law in order to get this race. The race itself is in doubt now that the teams have said they may not participate at all. How does it look for the Bahraini monarchy at this point from the point of the money, because obviously, as you mentioned corruption, money is obviously important to them?
Ahmad Of course money is important. They are making some gains but these are temporary gains. The overall energy and power rest with the people, with the majority of the people of Bahrain and this is in the process of the revolutions and social changes. These things take a long time sometimes, people get disappointed and stop but this is how things are. The French Revolution took seven years to succeed. We are talking about even seven months in Bahrain.
So I think the direction of history is on the side of the people of Bahrain and you see the monarchy gaining some support in the West but that support is going to evaporate very shortly when the Western powers realize that they cannot do much. The West will end up losing its presence in the [Persian] Gulf, in Bahrain especially, because they have supported the monarchy and its policy against the people of Bahrain and that shows you that the American officials, or maybe Western officials, are willing to sacrifice their national interests for a few thousand of dollars worth of gift, just like the president of the Formula One race did.
End item/ 129