BAHRAIN: GOVERNMENT CONTINUES ASSAULT ON OPPOSITION ACTIVISTS

The writer refers to Bahrain as the gift that keeps on giving, the reason being that the Bahraini government keeps on providing enthusiasts of global politics and international law with something to write about. It has certainly been successful at grabbing our collective attentions although not for the reasons it would prefer to be famous for.

Last week, opposition activist Nabeel Rajab was sentenced to three years in jail for effectively having the audacity to lead ‘peaceful’ protests against the government. The country’s courts are expected to hear his appeal next week.

Although the decision to sentence Rajab came as no surprise to observers, the length of the sentence for the ‘crime’ was even by Bahraini standards unprecedented. The EU’s foreign affairs High Representative Catherine Ashton has led calls against the Bahrain government’s anti-democratic stance. Ashton highlighted that Rajab had done nothing wrong and added that his sentencing was linked to his calls for the government to respect its citizens’ fundamental freedoms.

Victoria Nuland, the U.S. State Department spokeswoman stated that the U.S. was deeply troubled by Rajab’s sentence. She continued; “We’ve made it clear that it is critical for all governments, including Bahrain, to respect freedom of expression and freedom of assembly.” The NGO Amnesty International has gone even further than both the EU and the U.S by stating that it was a “dark day for justice.” Amnesty International’s Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui averred that Rajab’s sentence eliminates the potential for change in the country. Sahraoui affirmed: “Like many others in Bahrain, Nabeel Rajab is a prisoner of conscience, jailed solely for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression and assembly.”

The government’s publicity machine has since gone into overdrive in anticipation of the global opprobrium it expects to rain down upon it. The government insisted that it had evidence to hand which conclusively showed that Rajab had caused the deaths of innocent people by inciting “violence and escalation against law enforcement officers”. The country’s interior ministry also confirmed that about 700 security officers have been injured since clashes began last year. It has however failed to explain why others charged with the same offence appeared to have been given lighter sentences that that which befell Rajab.

For its part the Bahrain government has no incentive to restrain itself from maintaining the current status quo not least because its strategic location in the Middle East makes it a viable alternative as an oil transport route out of the Gulf region to the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran currently holds sway. The fact that the country also hosts the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet further complicates matters thus rendering any idea of political will being mustered and mobilized by the U.S. redundant. The Bahrain government, like its Russian counterpart who drew the ire of the watching world with its absurd decision to jail members of the Russian female punk rock band, Pussy Riot last week, fails to appreciate the significance of the oft-repeated mantra spawn by the current writer. The said mantra being that the movement for change is akin to a hydra which will not cease to exist when one of its heads - the movements’ individual foot soldiers – are incarcerated or silenced.

WEST DECLARES "ECONOMIC WAR" AGAINST IRAN, SAYS IRAN'S ECONOMIC MINISTER

In a move most likely to escalate the entrenched stand-off between the West and Iran, the government of the Islamic Republic announced at the end of the week its intentions to conduct new military exercises in and around the Strait of Hormuz. The Strait of Hormuz is particularly vital to the world’s economy as the narrow 34-mile wide (54km) channel located off Iran’s south coast which constitutes a passageway for the transportation of about 20% of the world’s traded oil.

The newly announced military exercises follow a recently concluded series of exercise by Iran’s military in the nearby Gulf of Oman. Iran’s Naval Commander of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, Rear Admiral Ali Fadari, told the Fars News Agency: “Today the Islamic Republic of Iran has full domination over the region and controls all movements within it”. The latest move by Iran was met with derision by the U.K and the U.S. The UK’s defence secretary Phillip Hammond warned Iran against any attempts to restrict oil flow in the Gulf. Mr Hammond stated that any attempts to close the Strait would be “illegal and unsuccessful”. He added: “it is in all our interests that the arteries of global trade are kept free, open and running”. The U.S has also stated that it will ensure that the international waters of the Strait stay open.

The U.S attributes Iran’s announcement of new exercises to the success of the series of sanctions placed against the country in recent years over Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme. Talks between the West, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the West have so far failed to yield any progress or compromises. The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has already passed several rounds of sanctions against Iran for the country’s refusal to terminate its uranium enrichment programme which the West alleges is clear intention of its quest to build nuclear weaponry. Sanctions imposed have included asset freezes on key companies and individuals, restrictions on the government’s arms exports and bans on the supply of nuclear related technology to Iran. The EU has also followed this with an asset freeze on several individuals and organisations. In the same vein, the U.S has also sought to tighten the already secure noose by imposing sanctions on numerous Iranian government agencies, officials and businesses.

Perhaps the most damaging actions initiated by the West in its “economic war” against Iran, a term coined by the country’s economic minister, Shamseddin Hosseini, are sanctions authorised by President Obama against Iran’s central bank, which handles Iran’s oil revenue and the oil embargo on the importation of Iranian oil set to be implemented by EU leaders later in the month. As expected, Iran has shrugged off the West’s latest move. In a Tehran news press conference, the country’s foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi stated that the country was “not concerned at all” about the impending EU ban on its oil and that Iran would “weather the storm”. Mr Saleh continued: “Iran, with divine assistance, has always been ready to counter such hostile actions, and we are not concerned at all about the actions”.

If the government of Iran thinks that the West has no intention to follow through on its threats, it will be advised to have a swift rethink. For one, the West has already implemented contingency plans to replace the oil supply produced by the Gulf States if Iran closes the Strait of Hormuz. The three-pronged sanctions regime imposed by the UN, the EU and the US is intended to put pressure on Tehran over its nuclear programme. Regardless of the protestations of the government, it is inevitable that the sanctions will further strangle Iran’s already fragile economy. Unrelenting rumours that food and resource scarcity abound and that many have flocked to the country’s banks to withdraw their deposits is indication of the effect of western pressure on the economy of the world’s second largest oil producer. Worryingly, there are no plans for a resumption of talks which collapsed a year ago; however it is hoped that the corrosive rhetoric emanating from the country remains just that, merely rhetoric and if you like, posturing. At present observers roughly seem to be in agreement that Iran is incapable of following through with its threats to close the Strait although one should bear in mind the adage relating to the danger posed by a wounded animal, the animal of course being in this case Iran.