Bahrain wants to expand military bases

Bahrain wants to expand military bases
By Erika Solomon

DUBAI | Thu May 19, 2011 3:25pm EDT

DUBAI (Reuters) – Bahrain floated the idea of expanding military bases within a bloc of Sunni-led Gulf Arab allies that helped it quash Shi’ite protests in March, while U.S. President Barack Obama criticized Manama over its crackdown.

Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid al-Khalifa said fear of Shi’ite Iran interfering in Bahrain may push the Gulf Cooperation Council to revise its military presence in Bahrain instead of pulling out when emergency law, imposed in March, ends on June 1.

“Any threat that any country would face would definitely, no doubt, affect its neighbors. Saudi Arabia is only 28 kilometers (17 miles) away from here. We are looking at the GCC force to be expanded, to have multi-bases everywhere in the GCC,” he said in an interview with PBS Newshour.

“So whether they leave or stay or be restructured, that’s what is to be discussed in the future,” he said.

Bahrain’s Sunni rulers imposed emergency law and called in troops from neighboring Gulf countries in March to quash protests led mostly by its Shi’ite majority, who are demanding democratic reforms. Some hardliners had called for a republic.

Obama on Thursday criticized the crackdown, saying that “mass arrests and brute force” were at odds with the universal rights of Bahrain’s citizens, and would not make legitimate calls for reform disappear.

“The only way forward is for the government and opposition to engage in a dialogue, and you can’t have a real dialogue when parts of the peaceful opposition are in jail,” Obama said in a Middle East speech. …more