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Dubai / AFP
Iran has warned Bahrain that it is fanning armed rebellion and “will pay the price” after an escalating crackdown on the country’s Shiite majority saw a top cleric stripped of citizenship.
Washington and the United Nations have also raised concerns about moves by the Sunni-ruled kingdom against Shiites, who account for some 70 percent of the Gulf state’s population.
Bahrain has been shaken by unrest since security forces crushed Shiite-led protests demanding a constitutional monarchy and an elected prime minister in 2011.
Tensions have reached fresh heights in recent days, with the suspension of the Al-Wefaq main Shiite opposition group and, on Monday, the stripping of top Shiite cleric Sheikh Isa Qassim’s citizenship.
Predominant Shiite power Iran has long championed the rights of the community in Bahrain and on Tuesday a prominent Iranian general said the move against Sheikh Qassim was a step too far. “Surely they know that the aggression against Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim is a red line… that will leave no option for the people but to resort to armed resistance,” Qassem Suleimani, head of the elite Revolutionary Guards’ overseas operations arm, the Quds Force, told state media late on Monday.
Bahrain’s rulers “will pay the price and it will have no result but the destruction of this bloodthirsty regime,” he added. Iran’s foreign ministry criticised the “extrajudicial” measures by Bahrain that “dash hopes of reform through dialogue.”
Bahrain has repeatedly accused Iran of interfering in its affairs and inciting violence among Shiites, a claim Tehran denies. The Bahraini interior ministry alluded to the accusations in its statement announcing the decision against the Shiite spiritual leader on Monday.
Saudi supports Bahraini measures to fight terror
JEDDAH / WAM
The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia, chaired the Cabinet session at Al-Salam Palace in Jeddah.
In a statement to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), the Saudi Minister of State, Cabinet Member and Acting Minister of Culture and Information, Dr Essam bin Saad bin Saeed, said that the cabinet reviewed a number of reports on the latest developments of events in the region and the world, stressing the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s support for all judicial measures taken by the Kingdom of Bahrain to fight extremism and terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, reiterating Saudi Arabia’s solidarity and standing by Bahrain in the measures taken to preserve the security, stability and safety of its citizens and to safeguard Bahrain’s unity and social cohesion.