(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - The comments came after tens of thousands of people in Bahrain staged a pro-reform demonstration in the capital city, Manama, despite a ban imposed by the Al Khalifa regime on protests.
There is increasing demonstrations going on in Saudi Arabia as well as in Kuwait, Jordan and in the other countries that have monarchies in the [Persian] Gulf region, so they are seeing this as a serious threat.
Press TV has conducted an interview with Michael Maloof, former Pentagon official from Washington, to further discuss the issue. What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.
Press TV: Day by day, it seems the revolution in Bahrain is forgotten. Just why is it that we can't find literally anything on the issue in mainstream US media?
Maloof: And you are not going to. Bahrain for the United States, in fact the demonstrations there is a real challenge to United States and indeed to the West and it is hypocritical that they maintain this silence due to the fact that they are calling for regime change in Syria as you just pointed out.
We have got a real, true democratic reform movement going on in Bahrain but for the United States especially that country along with Saudi Arabia and the other monarchies are very strategically important and they are not going to make any noise that might call for reforms and might topple those monarchies at this point.
So I think this is going to be business as usual but they are going to be aiming more at the Shia side of things and particularly in Syria and this is unfortunate and you have a real democratic effort under way in Bahrain but the silence has been deafening from Washington.
Press TV: Just how much is Saudi Arabia contributing to the silence and crackdown on Bahraini demonstrations and what implications will this have for Saudi Arabia itself?
Maloof: Well it is very serious because if Bahrain goes down that threatens the other monarchies and that is why Saudi Arabia moved troops in Bahrain for it is going to be a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran since the protests began and if the monarchy in Bahrain goes down that threatens the other monarchies especially Saudi Arabia and they are teetering anyway.
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