Oil interests muted Bahrain criticism: Analysts

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Saudi Arabia's massive oil wealth and Sunni solidarity against Shiite Iran is the main reason Arab states remained muted over repression in Bahrain, while loudly protesting over the crushing of a popular revolt in Libya, analysts say.

"Riyadh has traded Bahrain for Libya, because what happens at its borders is vital for the kingdom," said Burhan Ghalioun, director of the Centre for Contemporary Oriental Studies at the Sorbonne in Paris.

He said "the allied military intervention in Libya is secondary for Gulf countries, because their relations are very bad with Moamer Gadhafi," the Libyan leader facing a revolt at home and air strikes by an international coalition to prevent his brutal crackdown on civilians.

On March 14, Saudi Arabia sent 1,000 troops across the causeway into Bahrain, and two days later police cracked down on protesters who had been camped in the centre of Manama for a month, killing three demonstrators.

"Nobody is interested in showing hostility to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries. Westerners and Arab states alike need their oil and huge financial resources," Ghalioun added.

Nearly half of the world's oil reserves are owned by the Gulf monarchies, which since 1984 have been linked through the "Peninsula Shield" defence pact.

It has been conflict between Sunnis and Shiites, and the looming shadow of Iran, that has been instrumental in coalescing support behind King Hamad, the Sunni monarch who rules over a Bahrain population that is 70 per cent Shiite.

"The Arab position, especially that of the Gulf countries, was expected because of sectarian polarization in the region and the ambitions of Iran," said analyst Ibrahim al-Sumaidaie.

"Washington, together with most Arab countries, is convinced of Iranian involvement in the revolt in Bahrain, and nobody had any intention of seeing a powder keg ignited a few steps from the world's main oil reserves," said Sumaidaie, a professor of international relations in Baghdad.

For Saudi Arabia, the sectarian issue is ultra-sensitive. Only 10 per cent of Saudi Arabia's population is Shiite, but they inhabit the oil regions of the kingdom.

By contrast, virtually all of Libya is Sunni, and Saudi King Abdullah's dislike of Gadhafi is no secret. The two have occasionally exchanged pointed insults, sometimes publicly.

Even Syria, Iran's main ally in the Arab world, said on Sunday through its foreign minister, Walid Muallem, that the intervention of Gulf forces in Bahrain was "lawful."

"The Syrian regime wants to avoid a hostile position toward the Gulf countries, especially after what happened to Moamer Gadhafi who found himself abandoned by his Arab peers," said Hamid Fadhil, a professor of political science at Baghdad University.

"After the beginning of the unrest in their country, authorities in Damascus totally changed their attitude to Bahrain, to avoid being isolated in case they themselves use force against demonstrators," he said.

"This turnaround has been a surprise to (Syrian ally) Iran, but the Syrians believe it is better to have the backing of Gulf countries against a possible Western intervention should the situation worsen," he said.

In fact the only Arab leader who openly took a stand in favour of Bahraini protesters was Iraq's Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki: "We saw how they dealt with the tyrants who claim their rights peacefully in Libya, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain," he said on Saturday.

That statement, analysts said, jeopardises the possibility of a planned Arab summit in Baghdad in May.