Foreign-backed Al Khalifa monarchy in the throws of collapse

“…dictatorships cannot remain forever if fully dependent on outside support. The people will eventually bring it down.”

Bahrainis will soon topple foreign-backed Al Khalifa monarchy: Saeed Shahabi
19 February, 2013 – ABNA

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) – In the background of this the second anniversary of the uprising and continuing revolution that has shaken Bahrain to the core passed this week on 14th February celebrated with mass demonstrations both inside Bahrain and in other countries in solidarity with the People’s demands for democracy and freedom against the ruling dictatorship of the al-Khalifas. Some opposition have entered dialogue with the regime excluding its leadership, while the youth in particular are intent on regime change rather than reform.

An interview with Dr. Saeed Shahabi, a Bahraini exile in London and leader of the Bahrain Freedom Movement about the past and future of Bahrain. Dr. Shahabi has been convicted in absentia, of terrorism, by the al-Khalifa judiciary and sentenced to life in prison.

Q: I’d like you to firstly clear something up because the Bahraini regime accuses you of being quote, “a London-based terror master mind who glorifies acts of terror and sabotage, subverts national security, fuels sectarianism and drives wedges between the nation”. Your response to that?

Shehabi: Is there a tyrant in the world who would not accuse his opponents of such lies. But nobody listens to that. The regime knows that I am not that sort of person and that’s why it has called me many times; sent many people to ask me to go back; he (the king) asked me to meet, the dictator – I met him twice.

So if these attributes really are true why should he sit with a terrorist a mastermind and so on?

Q: Getting back to the week’s events, the protests that have been taking place to commemorate the anniversary and we’re hearing also that a 16 year old boy was killed, heavy security presence… What have you made of this week’s events?

Shehabi: On the 14th of February as we know it was the anniversary of the revolution – two years after the 14th February and the people went ahead with a lot of activism; they went into demonstrations in various parts of the country; they blocked the roads; they called for a national strike… But the response of the regime has been very harsh.

We saw that thousands upon thousands of troops were stationed on that day on various roads in almost every locality. The people found it almost impossible to congregate yet they went out and a 14 year old boy, Hussein al-Jazeery, was martyred.

Q: The opposition or parts of the opposition are actually conducting talks, reconciliation talk with the regime at the moment.

What do you make of that because I know that you’re somebody that believes in regime change rather than reform?

Shehabi: If the regime was reform-able I would have called for reform of the regime. But when we have opposed it for the past 40-45 years – I have, I realized this regime couldn’t be changed and it would be folly for me to just go and ask for a repetition of something that had already been tried and failed.

Q: So you think al-Wefaq are making a mistake by talking to the regime?

Shehabi: I thought al-Wefaq would have been better advised to have stayed away and if they had joined forces on the 14th with the people. Although, they are maintaining that they will keep up the struggle and that is only a way of trying not to be blamed by the Western governments for not joining.

Q: What other route is there to national reconciliation and saving the country other than talks?

Shehabi: Well, it is also a deception to talk about Bahrain in terms of social tensions, there is no social tension except when the regime wanted it to be there.

The problem in Bahrain is between the people and the ruling family, no one else. Of course he introduced and shifted the blame on these social tensions, but in reality he knows before anyone else that there is no such a thing.
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