Trump started with the right note

Last week, the Trump administration approved a multibillion dollar sale of weapons including F-16 war planes to Bahrain, which was previously blocked by Obama’s team due to the alleged human rights abuses in the Kingdom.

The decision has sent shock waves among so called human rights organizations and political opposition groups. However, the move indicates the Trump administration’s shift of foreign policy in favour of Bahrain in particular and the GCC states in general.   

The expected weapons are meant for external defense purposes. Street protests are contained by riot police who don’t utilize ordinary assault guns, let alone, advanced military weapons. 

Thus the sale of weapons has nothing to do with the alleged human rights abuses in Bahrain. Those issues have been and continue to be dealt with through proper channels where the government has established independent bodies to monitor the human rights situations the outcomes of which have gained international appreciation.  

The human rights organizations attempt to block the sale of the much needed weapons to Bahrain amounts to compromising Bahrain’s right to defend itself from external forces. And this is what Iran actually wants. So are the human rights organizations promoting Iranian policy?

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, Bob Corker has praised his government’s decision to proceed with the weapons sale and said “the caveats would have been unprecedented and counterproductive for security and human rights. There are more effective ways to seek changes in partner policies than publicly conditioning weapons transfers in this manner”. (US News and World Report, March, 30, 2017).  

Successive US administrations seem to have misunderstood the dynamics of Middle East political crisis. Apart from the Israeli- Palestinian issue, most if not, all conflicts are the byproducts of the terrorism promoted by Iran. 

Bahrain has been and continues to complain for decades against the presence of Iran sponsored terrorism in its soil but the international community gave little attention and took no action to entertain its grievances.  

However, things seem to have changed now.  The new US administration and the international community have understood the destabilizing behaviour of the Iranian regime and tangible measures have started to come by.

Recently, Germany has detained an asylum seeking Bahraini who was believed to be the master mind behind the terrorist activities in Bahrain. The US administration has included two Bahrainis to its Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT), the first such incident involving Bahrain’s terrorism claims. One way or the other, all pieces of evidence lead to Iran’s interventionist policy and its support to the militant outfits in Bahrain. 

Iran’s destabilizing activities have been confirmed by the US Central Command leader, Gen. Joseph Votel, who went further and proposed a ‘military means’ against Iran in an effort to disrupt its activities in the Middle East and hold it accountable for what it is doing’. ( Antiwar.com, March 31, 2017). 

Previously, the mainstream media and Western governments were discounting Bahrain’s accusation of Iran in its internal affairs merely as a ‘possibility’ or more ‘likely’ instances. However, as the Washington Post, April 01, 2017, indicated that ‘Bahraini officials frequently accuse Tehran of inciting violence to justify the crackdown on Shiite activists, however, Western intelligence are seeing a new boldness by Iran in supporting armed insurgents in the Kingdom..’.

The international community has a moral obligation to support Bahrain in its efforts to curb terrorism and allow it purchase weapons to defend itself from the existential threat posed by Iran. 

In this strategically important part of the world, Bahrain remains the closest geopolitical partner of the US. Arming Bahrain with the necessary military equipment will serve the interest of the US in the long run. The Trump administration’s approval of  weapons  sale to Bahrain is step in the right direction.