A senior Israeli researcher warns against Tehran's attempt to sabotage the new relationship between Israel and the small kingdom, and to undermine the rule in the Gulf states
Threat from Iran, the capital of Manama // Photo: Reuters
Bahrain is ruled by a Sunni monarchy, but in fact the peace agreement with Israel - it has become the first country with a Shiite majority in the Middle East to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel, since the fall of the Shah in Tehran during the 1979 Iranian revolution.
In fact, the Shiite majority in the country is significant, hence the significant internal challenge that awaits King Hamed.
What may illustrate this is the two hot topics (Trending Hashtags) on the Twitter network in Bahrain, immediately after the publication of the normalization agreement with Israel - and in almost complete contrast to what happened in the United Arab Emirates:
The past decade has been very challenging for the Manama royal house.
Since the Arab Spring in 2011, the royal house in Manama has been struggling to cope with being a minority that controls the majority.
As part of the protest, the regime found it difficult to control the street rage - and those who, as expected, came to the aid of the Sunni king are Saudi Arabia.
This, with a clear understanding that Riyadh is not interested in a country with a Shiite ruler in the Arabian Peninsula.
On the other hand, in Tehran they hoped that the Bahraini street would succeed in overthrowing the regime and who knows?
Perhaps Iran will also achieve its 14th province in this way - and more from the other side of the Persian Gulf.
To this end, the Revolutionary Guards tried as early as February 2011 to send weapons, explosives and weapons to terrorist cells that were destroyed in spite of them - a failed attempt. Rather, separate hopes and separate actions in the case of Tehran - and the Beit Khalifa dynasty still survives to this day.
Still, the terror-seeking ayatollah regime did not stop it.
He operates Hezbollah led by Hassan Nasrallah to form a kind of "proxy leading proxy" within the Shiite-majority island state.
Therefore, on April 10, 2013, Bahrain became the first Arab country to outlaw Hezbollah.
Later, a local political organization that opposes the monarchy, in the name of the seemingly innocent "Coalition of Young People of the February 14 Revolution," is ousted, and its pro-democracy leader moves to Beirut - and receives political guidance from Hezbollah.
Also, another significant political movement outlawed in July 2016 is al-Waqf, and all its assets have been confiscated.
Its important figure is a spiritual leader named Ayatollah Issa Qassem, and he is considered the representative of the supreme leader of Iran Ali Khamenei in Bahrain.
The royal house in Manama realized it was a "ticking bomb".
They denied him citizenship - and he was deported to Iran.
All of these actions did not stop Nasrallah and his men from using local extremist Shiite civilians to operate local terrorist cells, and even providing them with training in their camps in Lebanon.
On August 6 this year, the Bahraini Interior Ministry, headed by former chief of staff Rashid bin Abdullah, who welcomed the agreement with Israel, announced that it had thwarted two attempts by Hezbollah to smuggle explosive devices from Iran to the island. At the Ministry of the Interior in Manama.
At the same time, although Hezbollah is the middle echelon between the Quds Force commander of the Revolutionary Guid Ismail Kaani and the organization's terrorist cells in Bahrain, there are also organizations that see themselves as a separate body - such as the al-Ashtar battalions.
The organization, which sees the ayatollahs' regime in Iran as its patron, has carried out dozens of terrorist attacks in Bahrain - but it is far from Hezbollah's capabilities.
The most serious attack he carried out was in March 2014 - in which two local policemen and an UAE officer were killed.
"There have been attempts by Iran since the Islamic Revolution to undermine the stability of the regime in Bahrain," Dr. Michael Barak, a senior researcher at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism Policy at the Interdisciplinary Center, told Israel Today.
The Iranians, he said, "have three circles of influence in Iran. The first is 'soft power' - support for Shiite charities inside Bahrain. The second is through support for Shiite opposition movements, and the third is the strengthening of Hezbollah - model terrorist organizations."
Dr. Barak adds that “the Iranians very much want to overthrow the Bahraini regime, in order to expel the many American forces.
The conflict in this case is political and not religious. "
Meanwhile, Bahrain strongly encourages countries around the world to define Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.
On February 25, 2019, the Foreign Ministry in Manama congratulated Britain on the release of the Shiite terrorist organization, adding that "this is an important step in the fight against regional and international terrorism. Hezbollah poses a real threat to world peace and security."
Whereas, on July 19, 2019, the Bahraini Foreign Ministry congratulated Argentina on a similar step, responding: "This is a new step in which the international community is advancing to recognize the danger posed by this terrorist organization."
Dr. Barak, do you think that the Israelis in Bahrain will become a target for Iranian terrorism?
"The Iranians are bringing fighters on boats to Bahrain, and I fear that Israelis in Bahrain could become an Iranian target. However, for this mission there is an exchange of security delegations to take care of all the arrangements," the senior researcher concludes. "I am sure the Americans are involved."
