Bahrain's king says crackdown averted foreign plot to destabilise the country
Bahrain's king has said his forces have foiled a three-decade-old foreign plot to destabilise the country after they cracked down on a pro-democracy protest movement.
Bahraini King Hamad bin Issa al-Khalifa Photo: AFP
10:28AM GMT 21 Mar 2011
King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa said the plot by unnamed foreign powers "had been fomented for twenty to thirty years for the ground to be ripe for subversive designs".
His statement came as a fourth day of funerals was held for protesters killed in the violence last week, and opposition groups said around 100 people were still missing.
The small Sunni-ruled Kingdom has already blamed nearby Iran for stirring up protests which paralysed the country for much of last week and have seen up to 20 killed in clashes in the past month.
Tehran's ambassador to Manama was recalled last week and its charge d'affair was expelled on Sunday as tensions between the countries escalated.
Few details of the alleged plot were available. A report by the state news agency said if the unspecified plot "to subvert security and stability" had succeeded, it would have spilt into neighbouring Gulf states, who last week sent troops to prop up the King.
King Hamad said: "Such subversive designs are not however possible, whether in Bahrain or in any other Gulf Cooperation Council, thank Goodness. I here announce the failure of the fomented subversive plot."
Bahrain's rulers have long seen Tehran behind the island's simmering sectarian tension where the Shia majority complain of discrimination and marginalisation.
Shia protesters dominate the protest movement which has convulsed the kingdom with demands for a constitutional monarchy and curbs on royal power.
The opposition protest denies it is sectarian-based, but diplomatic observers said after a month of unrest, the kingdom was now at risk of dividing sharply along Sunni-Shia lines.
Iran has periodically claimed sovereignty over Bahrain since it achieved independence from Britain in 1971, but diplomatic cables leaked last year showed America was unconvinced Tehran was backing the radical opposition.
A cable from the US embassy in Bahrain dated August 2008 released by WikiLeaks said: "Bahraini government officials sometimes privately tell US official visitors that some Shi'ah oppositionists are backed by Iran."
"Each time this claim is raised, we ask the [government] to share its evidence."
"To date, we have seen no convincing evidence of Iranian weapons or government money here since at least the mid-1990s."
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