Saudi monarchy against democratic reform in Bahrain

Security forces attacked the protesters in several villages on Tuesday night. They fired teargas and rubber bullets to disperse the protesters in the villages of Sitra and Dair. They also arrested several youngsters in Dar Kulaib. The latest developments come as the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is set to discuss Bahrain’s rights record in the upcoming session of its Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group in Geneva. We have conducted an interview with Hisham Jaber, director of the Center for Middle East Studies, to hear his opinion on this issue. The following is a rough transcription of the interview. Q: Let us start with the regime’s crackdown on the villages and cities in Bahrain. How far are the Al Khalifa willing to go to quell the protest and how long will the Saudis be involved in the persecuting of peaceful demonstrators? Jaber: First of all we have to remember that Bahrain revolution has more than one year all almost 14-15 months and has been always peaceful and many observers were surprised that how can this kind of revolution stay peaceful that long specially on the other side violence has been used within 15 months against protesters. Talking about the regime in Bahrain, I am personally confident that the king of Bahrain want deeply inside have a solution for the crisis in his country and want a real reform but he is first king Hamad by inside objection represented by the right wing, the extremist prime minister or other members of the family who do not want any reform because they [fear] for their interest and their power. On [one hand] an external pressure against any reform in Bahrain made by Saudi Arabia, everybody knows that any democracy or human rights or equality or freedom in Bahrain will move quickly to Saudi Arabia and as everybody knows that democracy is contagious. On the other hand we have United States of America who did not take any final decision concerning Bahrain yet because Bahrain represents for America a military important platform like aircraft carrier and Bahrain asked the Fifth American Fleet and America is very concerned about its interest in Bahrain because to Bahrain the American operation can go easily and on the whole region. So the Americans want to be sure that any reform in Bahrain will not threaten their interest. I think now the problem will be much more complicated in Bahrain if the king or his government will not find a quick solution and make a quick election and respect the democracy also because this peaceful revolution cannot stay like this without violence because the people cannot stay receiving arms from the security forces and from the Saudi forces who came to Bahrain and as we see the human rights organization start now to look after Bahrain and to see there is a human rights violation in Bahrain. This is [on the] one hand. On the other hand when Saudi Arabia came with the idea to form a union between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, in my opinion is very dangerous and it is not feasible, it is not logical and it will really complicate the problem in state of solving this problem.