World silence encourages Al Khalifa to continue with its brutal crackdown: Analyst

 \Anti-government protests continue in Bahrain despite the regime’s violent crackdown.

Bahraini protesters have once again held demonstrations against the Al Khalifa regime in several villages across the country. The protesters took to the streets in several villages near the capital, Manama, blocking roads and setting fire to tires.

We have conducted an interview with Jamal Wakim, a political analyst from the Lebanese capital, Beirut, to further discuss the issue. What follows is an approximate transcript of the interview.

Q: It has been well over a year since the popular uprising began in Bahrain. Just how far are the Al khalifas willing to go to quell these demonstrations? And are you seeing an exit for the Saudi forces at all?

Wakim: I believe that the Bahraini regime will be persistent in cracking down on the revolution; especially that it is not having any support from any regional or international powers.

So the rebels or the revolutionaries are blocked in the island while the regime is having support from the United States, from Saudi Arabia and from other GCC countries.

I believe that the prospects of success for the Bahraini revolution are weak unless they become part of a wider revolutionary movement that would spread throughout the Gulf States. We do not have prospect for this in the near future now.

Q: What about on the international front? Many rights organizations have condemned what is happening in Bahrain against the peaceful protesters, against doctors and medics.

When will there be any tangible action taken against the Al-Khalifas?

And how do you explain the continued silence of the United States and its other Arab allies in the region?

Wakim: Because the US is concerned about the stability of these GCC countries that are mere bases for  American influence in the region, so  they are not interested in having any regime being discredited or destabilized.

That is why the United States, the West in general, and what is called world community are not acting in support of the Bahraini revolution.

As for the international NGOs, we have some of them that had voiced their concern about the situation in Bahrain, the humanistic situation in Bahrain.

However, these NGOs are not that influential and the bulk of the international organizations that are financed by the United States or by the West in general would not show any interest in the Bahraini.

They go by the American agenda especially at a time when the United States is thinking of blocking what it believes is Iranian expansionism in the region.

So I believe that the Bahraini revolution has weak prospects for now in spite of the sacrifices, in spite of the persistence of the Bahraini people in claiming their rights because they are facing very, very difficult odds.