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Bahrain turns to Iran
By
Hooman Peimani
Emir of Bahrain Shikh Hamad bin
Essa Al-Khaliefe's official two-day visit to Iran last
weekend was not without significance. Besides discussing
bilateral issues between the two Persian Gulf countries,
the visit, which followed the official visits of the
Saudi and Omani foreign ministers to Iran in early
August, signified the increasing opposition among the
Arab Persian Gulf countries to a possible American war
against Iraq.
Such possibility has pushed them
toward closer relations with the largest regional power,
that is to say, Iran. The latter has increased its
political influence and economic presence in the Arab
world over the past few years.
Iranian-Bahraini
relations have gone through different phases since the
1960s. As an Iranian island, the Iranian government
leased Bahrain to Britain in the 19th century. When the
99-year lease ended in the late 1960s, Iran's claim to
the island's ownership went contrary to the British plan
for its independence backed by the ruling Bahraini
elite. That development put Iranian-Bahraini relations
on a hostile path. To solve the dispute between Iran and
Britain peacefully, the proposed plebiscite to determine
the Bahrainis' aspirations for their future remained on
paper. Backed by the British government, the Bahraini
government declared independence of its country in the
early 1970s. Under American and British pressure, Iran's
Shah regime tolerated its independence and gradually
normalized its ties with that country.
The 1979
Iranian revolution created anxiety among the Persian
Gulf Arab regimes, including Bahrain. They were all
concerned about what they described as Tehran's
"export-of-revolution" policy aimed at their countries.
Shikh Essa, then the Emir of Bahrain, visited Iran in
1980, but failed to secure friendly relations between
the two countries. Bahrain's taking sides with Iraq
during the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88) severely damaged its
ties with Iran, although the two countries maintained
diplomatic relations until 1990.
Blaming Iran
for the anti-government riots of Bahrain's Shi'ite
majority, the Sunni-dominated Bahraini government
severed its diplomatic relations with Iran in 1990. The
hostile relations continued until 1997 when the election
of Iran's reformist President Mohammad Khatami helped
prevail a positive mood towards Iran among the Arab
Persian Gulf states. In that year, Iran and Bahrain
restored diplomatic and economic relations, which have
continued to this date.
The recent developments
in the Middle East have contributed to a growing
opposition towards the United States' Middle Eastern
policy. Undoubtedly, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
has turned the Arab public opinion against the
Americans. The majority of Arabs, including those living
in the "moderate" pro-American countries such as
Bahrain, Egypt and Jordan, now blame the American
pro-Israeli foreign policy for the Israeli government's
high-handed approach towards the Palestinians and for
its apparent lack of interest in continuing the Oslo
peace process. Unsurprisingly, there has been a
deepening anti-American sentiment among Arabs.
Added to this picture, the declared American
intention to wage a war against Iraq to change its
regime has further increased anti-American sentiment in
Bahrain, like elsewhere in the Arab countries. That
objective has made average Arabs furious, those who have
resented the American policy towards Iraq since the end
of the 1991 Persian Gulf War. In their eyes, that policy
characterized with economic sanctions has amounted to a
punishment for the Iraqis for their leaders'
wrongdoings.
There has been a growing concern
among many Arab leaders about the destabilizing impact
of such sentiment on their respective regimes, most of
which are despotic and unpopular and thus vulnerable to
political dissent. An American war against Iraq would
most probably ignite popular resentment against the
United States and those Arab states on its side on which
opposition groups could capitalize.
Moreover,
many Arab leaders, including those of Bahrain, have
concerns about the possible negative consequences of a
regime change in Iraq on their countries and their
regions. Given the subscription of the Iraqi opposition
groups to different and opposite political and
ideological convictions, such concerns include the
unknown objectives of Iraq under any future
opposition-created government, including the latter's
unpredictable policy towards its Arab neighbors. They
also include the questionable ability of the weak and
divided Iraqi opposition to ensure peace, stability and
territorial integrity of Iraq. Therefore, there is a
realistic possibility of a period of instability in that
country, which could spill over to its neighbors, such
as the Persian Gulf ones. Additionally, the very idea of
changing regime by a foreign power, whose application
could well go beyond Iraq, has worried many Arab
leaders, including those dissatisfied with the Iraqi
regime (eg, Saudi Arabia).
In such a situation,
there is a growing opposition in the Persian Gulf region
towards a possible American war against Iraq. The
regional countries, including Bahrain, have shown their
dissatisfaction with the pace of events by tilting to a
regional power, Iran, sharing their concerns in addition
to those of its own. The Iranians have clearly stated
their opposition to an American war against Iraq,
despite their numerous grievances against the Iraq
regime, which used chemical weapons against them during
the Iran-Iraq war.
Apart from Bahrain's
interests in friendly ties with Iran, the last week's
visit of Shikh Hamad, whose country provides the base
for the American Fifth Fleet in the Persian Gulf,
indicated the strength of Bahrain's opposition to the
American policy towards the region. For the same
reasons, the Saudi and Omani foreign ministers visited
Iran, even though their countries host American troops.
During the first three weeks of August, the visits of
three high-ranking Persian Gulf Arab officials to Iran,
one of the three members of the axis of evil, clearly
reflected their respective countries' concerns about any
American attack on Iraq, a declared topic of their
discussion with their Iranian counterparts.
Bahrain's growing relations with Iran have
demonstrated a fundamental change in its foreign policy
towards that country, which it identified as the threat
to its national security for the most part of the last
two decades. Among many other indicators, such as Shikh
Hamad's visit, the recent boycott of American soft
drinks in Bahrain and the sudden popularity of Iranian
ones symbolically indicate a shift in the balance of
power between Iran and the United States in the
energy-rich Persian Gulf, where both countries have
strategic interests.
Dr Hooman Peimani
works as an independent consultant with international
organizations in Geneva and does research in
international relations.
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