(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - The demonstrations took a new turn after the killing of a 14-year-old boy by the regime.
Ali Jawad was struck on the head by a tear gas grenade fired by the Saudi-backed Bahraini forces during a protest rally.
To shed more light on the issue, Press TV has interviewed Nada Hashwi, a political scientist in Beirut.
Q: Not as disappointing as the King's recent announcement of pardoning some protesters, yet continual Saudi backed crackdown persists, and then the death of the 14-year-boy: How can a parliamentary by-election take place on September 24 based on these circumstances?
Hashwi: Well, I do not think it will happen because first of all the opposition are not going to be joining this kind of election. It is nonsense. It is ridiculous and all that is happening about pardoning, you know, that is the most amazing and funniest joke I have ever heard in my life. Pardoning is like whoever commits a crime needs to pardon the victim. Now let's go back to the real issue here.
The deployment of Saudi Arabia in Bahrain is not at all without a reason. First of all, sitting 20 miles off of Saudi Arabia's eastern coast makes Bahrain very important strategically, economically and geopolitically. Now if they leave it just like that without intervening, it is like trying to defend their own country.
What is happening in Bahrain is nonsense to the Saudis. Let's not forget that how could the world community and how could the UN just turned a blind eye to what is happening. We all know who is the biggest ally to the Saudis. It is the US administration no matter what and definitely (they are) the babysitters of the Zionists.
Now let me say one thing, we know for a fact that the US administration has an agreement with the Saudis and US is their biggest ally, you keep on buying our weapons, we keep on taking your oil and we defend you in any way possible and we have turned a blind eye to anything that we would do regardless of killing people, of torturing people, of what is happening in Bahrain.
What is happening in Bahrain is simply an occupation. So what do you call it other than that? They intervened with no reason whatsoever. Even there is a princess who was on BBC not too long ago, from the Al Saud family, saying that the intervention by the Saudis into Bahrain should not have happened. She had continued to say that the United States and the West make mistakes, so the Saudis made a mistake as well.
Where do we go? Do we go by taking what mistakes the West makes and then we do what they do? I wish we could go after them and deal with democracy and human rights and the killing of people in cold blood. What happened recently in Bahrain, the killing of this 14-year-old kid, has ignited the Bahrainis and the demonstrators, the peaceful demonstrations that have been happening, and nobody is batting an eye about what is happening.
We hear [UN Secretary-General] Mr. Ban Ki-moon just killing us every single day with other countries supporting rebels who are killing their own people in brutal kind of way and not saying anything.
Q: Some are saying in an act of desperation that when a young woman's poetry is scaring the king, doesn't it mean that the time is up for Sheikh Hamad?
Hashwi: Yes, definitely the time is up for sheikh Hamad. Let me mention one point that is very important. In my opinion, I see that what happened with the Saudi intervention in Bahrain is a sign of weakness.
They are frightened because they are very afraid of the uncertain things and if a regime change is going to happen, not only them but actually all the [P]GCC ([Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council) countries and the West and of course the US administration [are frightened]. Even if they have to create a civil war between Bahrainis or youth sectarian gap, that will do it for sure.
The US, the Saudis and the [P]GCC will not let them go but I can say one thing: the Bahrainis, the demonstrators are not going home. So all the West and the Saudis should keep that in mind, they are there to stay, they will have a regime change. Only one gap is happening (which) is going to make them even stronger. So the more killing they [the Bahraini regime] do, the more they are going to make them stronger.
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