Council on Foreign Relations, Obama’s guiding light for, “Bahrain’s Unsettling Standoff”

editor: This incredibly out of touch interview provides a valuable insight into the paradigm that has “silenced” the Obama administration regarding Bahrain. It might prove a useful tool for those who seek to sway the Administration from its failed “quiet diplomacy” that serves as an enabler to the brutal al Khalifa regime. While this seems a false narrative, if for no other reason than there is a pluralist base of opposition that is leading the revolution beyond Al Wefaq, it helps identify what seems to be prevailing thought throughout the US State Department, the DoD and the Obama Administration at large. Phlipn.

Bahrain’s Unsettling Standoff
Bernard Gwertzman – Interviewee: Ed Husain – Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies
Council on Foreign Relations – 27 April, 2012

Bahrain has been in political turmoil since February 2011, shortly after the start of pro-democracy uprisings in other Arab countries. But Ed Husain, a Middle East expert for CFR, says the situation in Bahrain is more complicated than “just a straightforward demand for democracy.” The monarchy of King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, Husain says, is willing to open a dialogue for changes sought by Shiites, who make up a majority of the population. But the protestors–led by Ayatollah Isa Qassem, a supporter of Iranian revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini–are refusing dialogue and using violence to try to unseat the government, Husain says, which would only strengthen Iranian influence in the region, and would be met with opposition from Saudi Arabia. “If it is democracy the protestors want, then that can only be achieved by returning to the negotiating table and seeking a political settlement,” Husain says.

BG: You’ve just come back from Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. In Bahrain, there has been considerable controversy over the long-simmering dispute between the Shiites and the ruling government of King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa. What’s the situation on the ground?

The situation on the ground is one that’s radically different from the predominant narrative here in the West about Bahrain. What struck me in Bahrain was [that] the fine line between demonstrations and riots had been blurred. There were nightly riots in many of the villages, some of which I visited; attacks on police officers in Bahrain, who incidentally are for the most part unarmed. The officers use tear gas canisters for crowd control purposes–granted, many have argued that their use of tear gas is questionable. So what we are seeing on the ground is people who are increasingly using violence, and are responding to the regime’s attempts to open dialogue by a) ignoring it, b) not condemning the violence by the activists on the ground, and c), trying to derail the government. It’s important for the international community, especially the United States and the United Kingdom, to realize that what’s going on here is not just a straightforward demand for democracy.

BG: These demonstrations started in February 2011, in the wake of the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions. Originally it seemed that it was the majority Shiites seeking to get more of a voice in the ruling of the government, not necessarily to overthrow the monarchy. Are there different protesters, and have the parliamentary protesters been eclipsed?

The main opposition party is called al-Wefaq. When they walked out of parliament last year and then boycotted by-elections in September and October, al-Wefaq chose to walk away from dialogue with the government and with the strongest reforming voice in the royal family, Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa. Since pulling out of the parliament, the face of the opposition has been almost entirely restricted to the protesters, whose tactics have become increasingly violent. They must return to the negotiating table and empower the Crown Prince’s liberal, pluralist initiative for Bahrain. ….more