Iran Is Going Mad With Anger Over Saudi Arabia's Annexation of Bahrain

If you listen really closely, you can almost hear the fists of the mullahs in Tehran right now pounding on tables out of red-faced anger in regards to how the Saudis slipped into Bahrain and in essence, made Bahrain a province of Saudi Arabia. The article hear at DEBKA even hints at the fact that Iran may take this whole thing to war with the Saudis.

It really is a fascinating article below - it's nice to see the Iranians get conned by someone else for once and it's even nicer to see them all lathered up and pissed off over it.

It does, however, raise an interesting scenario if the Iranians decided to move forces into Bahrain at this time - would the Saudis back down or not?

Here's the article.

Iran squares off against Saudi Arabia over Bahrain's annexation


The accord reached between Saudi King Abdullah and the Bahraini monarch Hamas bin Isa Al Khalifa for the oil island's virtual annexation by Riyadh has so incensed Tehran that armed Iranian-Saudi clashes with the potential for all-out warfare may soon become unavoidable, debkafile's Iranian and Gulf sources estimate. Shiite-ruled Iraq would back Tehran in the first Shiite-Sunni collision to be sparked by the wave of unrest sweeping the Arab world - in contrast to the domestic discord raging in Libya and Yemen.

In the third week of March, debkafile reveals, King Hamad agreed to hand over to Riyadh control Bahrain's defense, external, financial and domestic security affairs. The Saudi king's son Prince Mutaib was confirmed by the two monarchs as commander of the Saudi and GCC forces invited to enter the tiny kingdom to put down the Shiite-led uprising, and it was agreed that Saudi Arabia would soon start building a big naval base on the island opposite the Iranian coastline.
The accord between the Saudi and Bahraini monarchs appeared for the first time in DEBKA-Net-Weekly 487 on March 25. It revealed then that King Hamad had allowed his realm to become the de facto 14th province of Saudi Arabia in order to block the Shiite uprising against him and its knock-on impact on Saudi Arabia's two million restive Shiites next door.
Neither Riyadh nor Manama has made the pact public. The Bahraini province of Saudi Arabia will differ from the other 13 in that it will not be governed by a Saudi prince like the others but by a member of the Al Khalifa royal family who will enjoy equal royal privileges with his Saudi peers.
Our sources report that in closed meetings with senior Saudi princes, King Abdullah explained the fundamental importance of this step for the kingdom's national security. He reported that Iran and its Hizballah surrogate were actively stirring up Shiite opposition in Manama as the first step toward fomenting a Shiite uprising against the Saudi throne.

On March 21, Riyadh resolved to expand the terms of reference of the Saudi-Gulf military intervention requested by King Hamad. Instead of just safeguarding the royal palace and strategic facilities against rampaging protesters, our sources report, it was decided to expand the mission to guarding Bahrain's borders against external attack – i.e. Iran or Iraq.
To this end, Saudi troop reinforcements have been pouring into Bahrain from the last week of March, including armored units and a variety of missiles. debkafile's military sources estimate that some 11,000 Saudi and United Arab Emirates boots have hit the ground in Bahrain since then.

Four days later, on March 25, Manama announced that planes taking off from Iraq or Lebanon would not be permitted to land in the kingdom, thereby cutting of the main route used by Iran and Hizballah to bring over intelligence agents and military instructors to aid the Shiite opposition.
The second important military step afoot at present is the transfer of Saudi fleet units from the Gulf of Oman and Red Sea to the military section of Bahrain's port, where the US Fifth Fleet has its headquarters and berths its ships. This is a provisional facility, to serve the Saudis until they finish building a port at Manama for parking their main Persian Gulf naval and marine command center, in response to the expanded facilities on the opposite shore of Iranian Revolutionary Guards' naval and marine raider units.
March 31, the Iranian parliament's security and foreign affairs committee strongly condemned Saudi military steps: "Saudi Arabia knows better than any other country that playing with fire in the sensitive Persian Gulf region is not in their interests," said the statement.

Since then, Iranian media have not stopped denouncing Saudi actions in Bahrain, likening them to Saddam Hussein's 1990 conquest of Kuwait which triggered the first Gulf War against Iraq. Riyadh was even accused of accepting clandestine US and Israeli support.

Then, Saturday, April 2, Iraq's Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki chipped in by reviling US Middle East policy as discriminating among the popular movements in motion against the different Arab dictatorial regimes: "Whatever decision is made on Libya should be applied to any government that suppresses its people with iron and fire," he said.

Sunday, April 3, the threatening recriminations coming from Tehran and Baghdad prompted the Gulf Cooperation Council to hold a special foreign ministers' meeting. It passed a resolution which "severely condemned Iranian interference in the internal affairs of Bahrain in violation of international pacts."

Language this blunt has never before been heard from GCC leaders. It is attributed by our Gulf sources to Saudi King Abdullah's adamant resolve to challenge Tehran headon on every issue affecting the Gulf region's security, to the point of Saudi military intervention when called for – even at the risk of precipitating an armed clash between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

The Islamic Republic finds itself confronted with its first forthright, no-nonsense challenge: If it backs down in the face of Saudi military activism, the Shiite communities across the region will conclude that Iran is both unable and unwilling to stand up for the Shiite-Arab revolt against Sunni regimes – whether in Bahrain, in other Gulf emirates or in Yemen and Lebanon.

Iraqi Prime Minister al Maliki faces the same quandary with regard to Iraqi Shiites who consider Bahraini coreligionists to be an integral part of their tribes and clans.
It is taken for granted by Saudi Arabia, Gulf capitals and Western military and intelligence observers that Tehran has been pushed into a corner from which it cannot afford to pull back from its overarching commitment to sponsor Bahrain's Shiites. The Iranians are therefore expected to send their Bahraini Shiite networks into terrorist action against Saudi military targets very soon. Riyadh is already braced for these assaults - and not just in Bahrain but in other GCC states including Saudi Arabia proper.
They will not go unanswered; hence the dire predictions among seasoned observers that armed hostilities between Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia may at some point become unavoidable.

Saudi Led Army Moves Into Bahrain

This is unprecedented as far as I can tell where the Saudi Arabian government has sent their military across the border (along with military members of some other Arab states) into the nation of Bahrain in order to assist the monarchy there fight the rebellion that has been underway for a number of weeks.

From the story at Breitbart:

A Saudi-led military force crossed into Bahrain Monday to prop up the monarchy against widening demonstrations that have sent waves of fear through Gulf states over the potential for enemy Iran to take new footholds on their doorsteps.

The Bahrain conflict is sectarian as much as pro-democracy, as the strategic Gulf island nation's majority Shiite Muslims see an opportunity to rid themselves of two centuries of rule by a Sunni monarchy.

But Gulf Sunni leaders worry that might give Shiite Iran a stepping stone to its arch-rival Saudi Arabia, connected to Bahrain by a wide causeway.

Instead, the Saudis and the other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council sent forces the other way, deploying about 1,000 troops by land and air and cementing the entire six-nation alliance to the fate of Bahrain's rulers, key U.S. allies as hosts of the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.

The first cross-border offensive against one of the rebellions sweeping the Mideast was not greeted with celebrations.

Shortly after word of the foreign military reinforcements began to spread through the island nation, protesters blocked roads in the capital Manama. Thousands of others swarmed into Pearl Square, the symbolic center of the monthlong revolt.

Looking at the list of tiny Arab countries that make up this fighting force going into Bahrain, I would say it is safe to assume that 80% of the troops are Saudis.

And as you can tell above, the move isn't being received well by protesters and rebels in Bahrain. I wonder just what will happen when word gets out that a Saudi team of soldiers guns down a few Bahrain protesters in the streets?

Bahrain 'arena' for Gulf forces and wider fears


MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) - A Saudi-led military force crossed into Bahrain Monday to prop up the monarchy against widening demonstrations that have sent waves of fear through Gulf states over the potential for enemy Iran to take new footholds on their doorsteps.

The Bahrain conflict is sectarian as much as pro-democracy, as the strategic Gulf island nation's majority Shiite Muslims see an opportunity to rid themselves of two centuries of rule by a Sunni monarchy.

But Gulf Sunni leaders worry that might give Shiite Iran a stepping stone to its arch-rival Saudi Arabia, connected to Bahrain by a wide causeway.

Instead, the Saudis and the other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council sent forces the other way, deploying about 1,000 troops by land and air and cementing the entire six-nation alliance to the fate of Bahrain's rulers, key U.S. allies as hosts of the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.

The first cross-border offensive against one of the rebellions sweeping the Mideast was not greeted with celebrations.

Shortly after word of the foreign military reinforcements began to spread through the island nation, protesters blocked roads in the capital Manama. Thousands of others swarmed into Pearl Square, the symbolic center of the monthlong revolt.

Shiite-led opposition groups denounced the Gulf military task force as an occupation that pushes the tiny island kingdom dangerously close to a state of "undeclared war."

"No to occupation," demonstrators cried in Manama's packed Pearl Square.

Gulf leaders see it completely differently.

The Sunni kings and sheiks fear any cracks in Bahrain's ruling system could threaten their own foundations. Protests are already flaring in Oman, Kuwait and even tightly ruled Saudi Arabia. The leaders also perceive political gains by Bahrain's Shiites as potential avenues of entry for Iran's Shiite regime—even though there are no apparent links between Tehran and Bahrain's Shiite opposition.

"The Gulf leaders have tried to legitimize this. They portray it not as intervention in an internal Bahrain dispute, but rather as an action against an external threat," said Sami Alfaraj, director of the Kuwait Center for Strategic Studies. "Bahrain is the arena for the worries about Iran."

In Tehran, authorities had no comment on the Gulf force moving into Bahrain. Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi called on Bahrain to avoid using "violence and force," according to the semiofficial Fars News Agency.

In Washington, White House spokesman Jay Carney pointedly did not call on the Saudi-led force to withdraw. Asked about that, he said, "We are calling on the countries in the region to show restraint, and pointing to the fact that the dialogue that can bring about political reform is essential for the stability of the countries in the region and their continued economic prosperity."

It's not clear when the tipping point arrived for Bahrain to seek outside help. The rulers have faced a month of nonstop unrest that has left seven people dead and the country drifting toward open sectarian conflict.

There have been scenes of defiance and disobedience so unsettling that pro-government parliament members appealed to Bahrain's king to impose martial law. On Sunday, protesters paralyzed Bahrain's finance district with roadblocks and then stood their ground—and in some cases pressed forward—against riot police firing tear gas in Pearl Square.

A statement on the state-run Bahrain News Agency said troops from the GCC's Peninsula Shield Force have been deployed "in line with the principle of common destiny bonding" the bloc, made up of Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

The statement said the reason for the mission was "the common responsibility of the GCC countries in maintaining security and stability. "

The Shield Force was created in the 1980s. Military units under a GCC command have been sent to Kuwait, including during the 1991 U.S.-led campaign to oust Saddam Hussein's force and in 2003 before the invasion of Iraq. The current action marks a significant shift to help a government quell internal unrest.

"It changes the role of the GCC actually," said Jane Kinninmont, a senior research fellow and Bahrain expert at the London-based think tank Chatham House. "They've always had their collective defense (pacts) ... The idea of gathering together to protect a government against its own people seems to be quite another thing."

The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have announced their forces were sent to Bahrain, but it was unclear about the contributions from the other states. By midday Monday, dozens of Saudi military vehicles were crossing over the causeway connecting the countries. The Gulf Daily News, which is close to Bahrain's rulers, said the Gulf forces would protect sites such as electricity stations and oil facilities.

Opposition leaders were outraged and—in an ominous sign for Bahrain's rulers—taking about resistance rather than possible dialogue.

"We consider that any military force or military equipment crossing the boundaries of Bahrain—from air, sea or land—an occupation and a conspiracy against the people of Bahrain ... and threatens them with an undeclared war by armed troops," said a statement from a coalition of seven main opposition groups.

For their part, Bahrain's leaders have expressed increasing frustration that opposition factions have not accepted offers to open a dialogue.

In a series of Twitter messages, Bahrain's prime minister, Sheik Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, lashed out at the Shiite-led protesters. "What we are witnessing in Manama is no peaceful protest," he wrote. "It's wanton, gangster style takeover of people's lives."

Shiites, who account for 70 percent of the population, have long complained of systematic discrimination by the Sunni dynasty.

The grievances include allegations of being blackballed from key government and security posts. They also strongly object to government policies that give citizenship and jobs to Sunnis from other Arab countries and South Asia as a way to offset the Shiites' demographic edge.

The main opposition groups have called for the Sunni rulers to give up most of their powers to the elected parliament. But as violence has deepened, many protesters now say they want to topple the entire royal family.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited Bahrain on Saturday and urged leaders to quickly move on reforms. On the same day, Bahrain's Interior Ministry said the sectarian strife was threatening the "social fabric" of the nation.

Last week, the GCC promised $10 billion in aid to both Bahrain and Oman, which also had faced protests calling for more jobs and a greater public voice in political affairs.

Elsewhere in the region, Yemen's president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, came under increasing pressure as workers and university staged strikes and more powerful tribal chiefs turned against his 32-year rule. On Sunday, Saleh fired a government minister for failing to persuade protesters to end their monthlong revolt.

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Bahrain : Key US Base Island In Gulf Explodes In Protests & Chaos

A shocking point-of-view video of attacks on pro-democracy, pro-reform demonstrators in Bahrain. At least five died in these attacks, with more than 500 wounded :



Bahrain is not Egypt. For one thing, its ports are home to the United States Fifth Fleet (excerpts) :

As riot police in Bahrain attacked hundreds of pro-democracy demonstrators Monday with tear gas, rubber bullets and concussion grenades, U.S. strategic interests in the Gulf appeared poised to receive yet another battering from the revolutionary wave that is sweeping the Arab world.

Just days after the resignation of Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, stripped Washington of its strongest diplomatic partner in the region, pro-democracy demonstrations in Bahrain threaten one of its most crucial military outposts in the centre of an arc of instability that now stretches from North Africa through the Middle East to South Asia.

Bahrain’s Shiite majority, which accounts for almost 70% of the population, is challenging the island’s Sunni king, Sheik Hamid bin Isa al-Khalifa. They want him to rewrite the constitution to give Shiites a larger share of power and economic opportunity, while demanding investigations into widespread complaints of torture and corruption.

Bahrain is the smallest and most volatile of the Gulf states, with a long history of animosity between a ruling Sunni elite closely allied to the Saudi monarchy and its Shiite majority, which has a religious affinity with Iran.

There are concerns large-scale Shiite unrest in Bahrain might encourage similar protests among Saudi Arabia’s Shiite minority. But perhaps the biggest impact of any Shiite uprising would be renewed calls to end the significant U.S. military presence in Bahrain.

The tiny oil-producing state just off the east coast of Saudi Arabia is home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, headquarters for a U.S. Marine Corps amphibious unit and a crucial base for U.S. Air Force jet fighter interceptors and spy planes.

Bahrain gives Washington a base in the very heart of the Gulf from which it can protect and monitor the movement of 40% of the world’s oil through the Strait of Hormuz, spy on Iran and support pro-Western Gulf states from potential threats.

The Fifth Fleet, with 15 warships and an aircraft carrier battle group, has made Bahrain its headquarters since 1991. Just last year, the Pentagon launched a US$580-million project to double the size of its naval base in Bahrain. But all those plans could be swept aside if the political storm raging elsewhere in the Arab world suddenly engulfs the emirate.

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