AhlulBayt News Agency - Former Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir Abdollahian underlined the wide rift between the Bahraini people and government, and said the al-Khalifa regime is like a puppet in Riyadh's hands.
"By adopting a military and security approach against Bahrain's majority, the al-Khalifa has created a wide rift between the government and people," said Amir Abdollahian, who was also former Iranian envoy to Manama and is now an advisor to the foreign minister, on Tuesday.
"The basic problem of the Bahraini government is that it is under Saudi Arabia's hegemony," he added.
Amir Abdollahian referred to the long-term ruling of the Bahraini prime minister since 1971, and said, "This is while the Bahraini foreign minister has called for the removal of Bashar al-Assad, the legal president of Syria."
"I told the British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond during talks last year ‘you speak of democracy in Syria while supporting the Bahraini regime, whose prime minister has been in office for 44 years," he further noted.
Since mid-February 2011, Bahrain, a close ally of the US in the Persian Gulf region, has been witnessing almost daily protests demanding that the ruling family relinquish power.
The Al Khalifa regime is engaged in a harsh crackdown on dissent and widespread discrimination against the country's Shia majority. Scores of people have been killed and hundreds of others injured or arrested in the island country.
Earlier this month, the government suspended the main Shia opposition party, al-Wefaq, accusing it of having links to foreign terrorists and inciting hatred. Sheikh Ali Salman, al-Wefaq’s secretary-general, was arrested in 2014 on charges of inciting violence. His sentence was doubled to nine years on appeal last month.
The cabinet decided to revoke the citizenship of Sheikh Isa, an indigenous Bahraini who applied for nationality to get a passport in the 1960s, after a presentation by the interior ministry. The lack of judicial oversight raised concerns among rights groups.
Stripping the nationality of dissidents has become a popular tool for Persian Gulf Arab littoral states battling domestic dissent, such as Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, where nationality is perceived by many as a privilege not a right.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights says more than 250 Bahrainis have been stripped of their nationality for alleged disloyalty.
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