*** US Scholar highlights Iran ploys against Bahrain | THE DAILY TRIBUNE | KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN

US Scholar highlights Iran ploys against Bahrain

Manama

 As US President Barack Obama has started his outreach to Iran, Tehran’s attempts to destabilise Bahrain have accelerated, stated resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) Michael Rubin.

 In his column for America’s monthly magazine titled ‘Commentary,’ he said ordinary Bahrainis, regardless of religion or religious sect, would be caught in the crossfire if Iran transforms Bahrain into a proxy battleground.

 “In recent years, however, the Islamic Republic of Iran has sought to co-opt Bahraini unrest to its own purposes. The younger generation of Bahraini activists may not realise how Iran is using them, but the result is the same,” said Rubin, who earlier served as the editor of Middle East Quarterly, between 2004 and 2009.

 The author said that during a 2012 march, he witnessed the use of Molotov cocktails by the protesters, against security forces.

 In the meantime, he highlighted, over the past few years, Bahraini authorities have intercepted weapons shipments that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps attempted to infiltrate into Bahrain.

 “Four weapons caches have been seized in country, and two interceptions of smuggling attempts by boat, and two by bus. Forensic analysis pointed directly to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Kata’ib Hezbollah, Iranian proxies operating in Iraq. Tehran no longer tries to hide or deny its role,” he said.

 Rubin also underscored the link between Iranian leader Ali Khamenei’s statements against Bahrain and the blast that took place in Sitra on July 28.

 On July 18, just days after Obama announced the nuke deal, Ali Khamenei had stated Iran would keep interfering in the internal matters of Palestine, Yemen, Syria, Bahrain, and Lebanon, regardless whether the Iran deal text gets approved or not. Ten days later, Bahrain witnessed a bomb blast, Michael Rubin said.

 “The increasing Iranian aggression toward Bahrain simply foreshadows the immediate future with Iran’s hardliners empowered by a deal that does little to constrain Iran’s nuclear programme. On the other hand, it does much to empower the Iranian hardliners bent on regional transformation,” he said.