Iran’s Quds Force meddling in Bahrain

June 2016

Bahrain is a country of the Persian Gulf and Iran continues to argue it was once amongst its territories, and therefore claims sovereignty over this important island. Back in August 2008, Hossein Shariatmadari, editor-in-chief of Keyhan – the known mouthpiece of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei – wrote an article declaring Bahrain an Iranian province. This raised major tension between in the bilateral relations between the two countries, and finally Manouchehr Mottaki, then foreign minister of Iran, was forced to visit Bahrain and resolve the matter.

On the other hand, due to the Shiite majority in this country, the Revolutionary Guards Quds Force has been actively recruiting the youth and sending them to Iran for terrorist training to thus influence and spark an “Islamic revolution” in Bahrain. In this regard a mullah by the name of Sheikh Eisa Ghasem has been recognized as the leader of this so-called revolution.

In the past few months the country of Bahrain has apprehended a significant number of terrorist cell members and confiscated a large amount of explosives and arms, all sent by Iran. Only in one case in October 2015 a large bomb workshop was discovered in the Shiite city of Navayderat, south of Manama, the capital of Bahrain. This workshop belonged to the Quds Force, the extraterritorial wing of the Revolutionary Guards, Bahraini officials said. This warehouse contained 1.5 tons of C4 and other types of explosives, automatic weapons and hand grenades. This development led to the expulsion of Iran’s charge d’affaires from Bahrain. Prior to this Bahrain had recalled its own ambassador from Tehran due to Iran’s interference in its internal affairs.

In the past few weeks Bahrain has witnessed a large scope of unrest incited by Iran-backed Shiites in this country, leading to Bahrain authorities revoking the citizenship of the main figure behind these unrests, being none other than Sheikh Eisa Ghasem.

Following this development Quds Force commander Qassem Suleimani, in command of all the unrest in the entire region, made harsh remarks and even threatened this “will create flames of fire in Bahrain.”

On the other hand, the Iranian regime’s foreign ministry and all officials of this regime have voiced positions against Bahrain and made similar threats. This includes other Iranian regime puppets in Iraq that follow the chorus launched by the Quds Force against Bahrain. This scenario is very similar to the pro-Iranian regime mullah in Saudi Arabia by the name of Sheikh Nimr.

U.S. President Barack Obama, who figured the nuclear deal with Iran would render changes in its approach and behavior, has seen his dreams becoming a nightmare. Not only has Iran intensified its terrorist nature after the nuclear agreement, in fact Tehran is forced to escalate its meddling across the region to downgrade the setbacks suffered from the nuclear agreement.

The question is why does Iran intervene in the affairs of other countries? The answer is quite simple. Iran’s meddling in other countries of the region is aimed at exporting the “Islamic republic revolution,” and therefore expand the territories under the “Islamic republic” control.

Another question that comes to mind is that why is Iran attempting to export its “revolution” to other countries? In my opinion the answer is quite simple. The main dilemma Iran is facing is that the Iranian people are completely against the mullahs’ religious establishment. Now, based on the experience the mullahs have learned from Iranian regime founder Ruhollah Khomeini, this regime needs to export its “revolution” to quell any possible domestic protest. This is exactly why Tehran allocates nearly $1 billion a month for the war in Syria.

Here, one must say to Obama and the entire pro-appeasement camp that as long as they continue their appeasement policy with Iran, Tehran will easily continue to export its terrorism and unrest to all countries of the region.