No Solution to Bahrain's Crisis as long as al-Khalifa Remains in Power

Member of Bahrain's Islamic Action Society Rashid al-Rashid said the critical conditions in his country would continue as long as the al-Khalifa rulers remain in power, noting the siege of the al-Akr town as an instance of aggravating conditions in Bahrain. Speaking to FNA on Sunday, al-Rashid said the siege of al-Akr and the brutal collective punishment of Bahrain's people by the al-Khalifa regime have made it impossible to settle the current crisis as long as the regime is in power. He described the siege of the town as a milestone in Bahrain Revolution and a dangerous development in the country. The Bahraini political activist also said that the current situation sends the signal that "talks between the nation and the al-Khalifa regime is impossible". The Al-Khalifa regime sponsored by the US and Persian Gulf neighboring states is struggling to force people to accept its legitimacy and has refused to take any step for a political solution, he added. Al-Akr, South of Manama, has been under siege for 10 days as the government is adopting collective punishment against the residents of the town and using bombs and poisonous gas against citizens passing along the streets. Bahrain's police and security forces have surrounded al-Akr and cut the roads and transfer of food supplies to the town after a bomb attack on October 18 allegedly killed one policeman and injured another one following clashes between protesters and the Saudi-backed security services. Bahrain's al-Vafa al-Islami stream has condemned the al-Akr siege, and underlined, "The Bahraini regime's story about the killing of a policeman in al-Akr village is an excuse to assume the extensive deracination of people as permitted." Anti-government protesters have been holding peaceful demonstrations across Bahrain since mid-February 2011, calling for an end to the al-Khalifa dynasty. Violence against the defenseless people escalated after a Saudi-led conglomerate of police, security and military forces from the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) member states - Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar - were dispatched to the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom on March 13, 2011, to help Manama crack down on peaceful protestors. Tens of protesters have been killed by the al-Khalifa's security forces, hundreds have gone missing and thousands of others have been injured since the start of the Islamic Awakening in the tiny Persian Gulf country.