Saudi Arabia’s Petulant Prince Bandar, fans the flames of violence in Bahrain

Opposition Figure Blames Saudi Prince Bandar for Increased Tensions in Bahrain
9 November, 2013 – FARS

TEHRAN (FNA)- A prominent Bahraini opposition figure took Saudi Intelligence Chief Prince Bandar Bin Sultan responsible for the recent exacerbation of tensions between the Bahraini people and the ruling al-Khalifa government and the security forces’ harsher crackdown on the protestors.

“Informed sources have said that Prince Bandar is behind the increased tensions in Bahrain; tensions have intensified after Riyadh’s failure in the Syrian case and it failed in changing the power balance in Syria and after the al-Saud sustained much regional and international damage in this case,” a member of Tamarod (Rebellion) Movement and political analyst Ali al-Fayez told FNA on Saturday.

“The Al-Saud headed by Bandar Bin Sultan want to compensate for their failures in Syria and other regional issues in Bahrain,” he added.

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 2011, to help Manama crack down on peaceful protestors.

Al-Fayez underlined that despite all plots hatched by Riyadh and other allies of al-Khalifa regime, the opposition forces will not succumb to pressures and will continue their protests until the overthrow of al-Khalifa regime and empowerment of a popular and fair government.

In relevant remarks in August, a political analyst said that Prince Bandar is behind the unrests created in most of the countries in the Middle East.

“The Pressures by Prince Bandar for restoring the battlefield balance in the interest of terrorists in Syria and a political balance in Lebanon helped failure of talks between Washington and Damascus,” Syrian political analyst Akram Ali Al-Ahmad told.

“Saudi Arabia has taken charge of the leadership of the front against the resistance axis to proceed with the regional affairs according to the plans and programs the US and Saudi Arabia,” he added.

In July, the Syrian Dam Press news website reported that Prince Bandar Bin has been forming terrorist groups in Lebanon.

Bin Sultan has created several terrorist groups in cooperation with Lebanese politicians, including Head of the Lebanese Al-Mustaqbal party Saad al-Hariri and Samir Jaja, it reported.

Prince Bandar has sent a number of its mercenaries to Lebanon via Syria, Dam Press quoted informed sources as saying.

The sources noted that Bandar’s mercenaries have had special terrorist trainings in camps of the al-Nusra Front terrorist group and the so-called Free Syrian Army in Syria.

The sources also revealed that the Lebanese Resistance Movement Hezbollah is the main target of Prince Bandar’s terrorists.

Saad al-Hariri and Bandar Bin Sultan had a meeting in the Saudi city of Jeddah in October after a terrorist bomb blast in Beirut which led to the killing of the Lebanese Internal Security Forces Chief, General Wissam al-Hassan.

At the meeting, the two sides conferred on ways of intensifying tensions in Lebanon through terrorist operations by extremist groups who are supported by the al-Saud regime, Palestinian weekly al-Manar reported in October.

Prince Bandar coordinates terrorist operations and blasts in Lebanon with Israel and he occasionally makes secret visits to Tel Aviv, the weekly quoted informed sources as saying.

The Jeddah meeting presided by (Saad) al-Hariri was held with the aim of creating chaos in Lebanon, and supporting and expanding terrorism in Syria with the coordination and cooperation of their international and regional allies, the sources told Al-Manar.

In June, the Lebanese newspaper Assafir reported that Prince Bandar supervised the operations of providing the foreign-backed militants fighting the Syrian government, with German anti-aircraft missiles in Antakia.

Arab sources told Assafir that Prince Bandar Bin Sultan supervised supplying the militant groups in Syria in June with a batch of heavy weapons that includes mainly German anti-aircraft missiles in Antakia before the militants distributed the weapons over their different groups in Aleppo, Homs, Damascus, and Idleb.

The sources added that Bandar is seeking an arm deal with France to provide the Syrian militants with French anti-aircraft missiles, yet the French expressed their concerns about their strategic interests, and refused to be the sole provider of weapons for the militants, calling on to share these burdens. …source