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Arabia

Bahrain blames unrest on outside parties

2010-09-30

[Al Arabiya] Shiite muscle jugged for anti-regime activities were trained and financed abroad, Bahrain's foreign minister charged in an interview published Wednesday, while insisting he was not blaming Iran.

Not blaming Iran as such, merely identifying several parties, like the Revolutionary Guard and like-minded groups.

"They received training abroad and they received money from abroad," Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmed al-Khalifa told the Saudi-owned pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat.

He added that those jugged had "acknowledged receiving the assistance of several parties in the region."

"Abdul, the number seven pliers, please."
"Yes, emir. Here they are, emir."
"And the mustache wax. Properly waxed mustaches are very important when interrogating prisoners, Abdul. Someday, when you have mastered these intricacies, we'll see about letting you do an interrogation of your own."
"Oh, thank you, emir!"

"There are, here and there in the region, pockets of terrorist training that could escape state control," he said.

Responding to a question, he said he was "not accusing Iran."

Definitely, that's not what he was doing.

Shiite-majority Iran has been accused in the past of fuelling Shiite-Sunni tensions among its mostly Sunni-majority Gulf Arab neighbors. In Bahrain, Shiites are the majority but are ruled by a minority Sunni dynasty.

Early this month Bahrain charged 23 Shiite muscle with forming a "terror network" aimed at toppling the Sunni-dominated government.

The foreign minister said they were "implicated... in terrorist acts and sabotage" in Bahrain, and they had "tried to do the same in their countries."

Asked about Iran's controversial nuclear program which has earned it four sets of United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society sanctions, Sheikh Khaled said that the Gulf countries "respect the sanctions".

"But we are against a strike and will not authorize it," he added.

Oh dear, another unauthorized strike.

Neither Israel nor the United States have ruled out a resort to military action to prevent Iran developing a nuclear weapons capability, an ambition Tehran strongly denies.

Posted by:Fred

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