On May 24, the Al-Akhbar daily newspaper carried the following piece: “The rulers of Bahrain, and their King Hamad Bin Isa, are proceeding with the unjust treatment of Sheikh Isa Qassim, the most prominent leader in the country who was sentenced in absentia, by a tribunal in Manama last Sunday, to a suspended term of one year in prison after being convicted of “collecting money in illegal ways…[ellipses as published] and money laundering” in addition to paying a fee of 100,000 Bahraini dinars (around 265,000 USD) and “confiscating the concerned funds.”

“Through Sheikh Qassim, these rulers are proceeding with shedding the blood of the Bahraini people. In addition to all they’ve done over six years, the authorities affiliated to them have launched, yesterday at dawn, a “security operation” aimed at breaking the siege that the unarmed Bahraini people have been organizing for almost a year around the sheikh’s house at the town of Al-Darraz, to shield him against treachery.

“The authorities justified their action that led to killing at least five protestors (the opposition announced that some of these were killed in detention) and injuring dozens, by saying that the “security intervention aimed at imposing security and general order as the area turned into a haven for wanted individuals and outlaws.” The statement of the ministry of interior also indicated that, during the operation “286 wanted individuals and people who had escaped from prison in addition to terrorist operations’ convicts who had sought refuge at the house of the so-called Isa Qassim were arrested.” According to Bahraini sources, the sheikh’s fate yesterday “was wrapped with mystery.” The sources also indicated that “large numbers of security forces with their vehicles are encircling the house from all sides and preventing cars and individuals from reaching it.”

“Who is supporting Hamad Bin Isa? And what does he want? The Bahraini king who appears to be a small middleman among the prominent rulers of the Gulf States, has probably received a dose of support when he met with US President Donald Trump last weekend on the margins of the Al-Riyadh summit, a meeting that made him gain “an open check to proceed with the oppression against his people” as per the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy. In front of the master of the White House (and the Gulf), this ruler praised the good relations between the two countries, turning the US and former British colonialism in his country into a “partnership” that has been going on “for more than 120 years!”

“This ruler spends millions of dollars on western public relations companies to improve his image and the image of his oppressive, blood-thirsty regime in front of the world. This ruler is not hiding his special relationship with the American master at these specific regional circumstances, a relationship that is supported and enhanced by the obedience to the people of Salman in Saudi Arabia knowing that these people had preceded him a few days ago into carrying out a similar action reflected into launching a systematic destruction of Al-Awamiya in the eastern part of the country.

“Bin Isa and Salman agree, through their actions and their primitive political minds, on striving on blood and sedition, and on constructing a sectarian policy whereby which, all the people who belong to a local, historical group are seen as “the tools of Iran,” the number one enemy, even before Israel. Such regimes will be clinging to their conflict with Iran because this conflict supplies them with legitimacy as a time where other legitimacies are losing their existence. They [these regimes] will become thirsty for the blood of their own people, “the agents of Iran,” whenever they realize that the sectarian struggles are not enhancing their legitimacy.”