In Bahrain there is a US Fifth Fleet that has not felt safe for some time, or more exactly since Manama took the lead at the instigation of the US/Israel/Riyadh axis to “normalize” with the Zionist entity and its ministers, in open war against Palestine, Hezbollah and Iraq, presented their wishes on the occasion of “Hannuka” to the Zionist ministers.
Two days ago, the State Department blacklisted the world’s most shameless Saraya al-Mokhtar of Bahrain, a group closely linked to the Resistance and which has been in existence since 2011, and so far advocating peaceful protest against the ruling al-Khalifa dictatorial regime.
Only since the announcement of normalization, the Bahraini Resistance no longer guarantees anything: if until now the US military presence was more or less tolerable because the Fifth Fleet was rather quiet, contenting itself with a few naval exercises here and there and then welcoming the fact that the Resistance in general and the Iranian CGRI in particular “act professionally”, even aspiring to respect, the situation may now change at any moment. For seeing the contingents of Zionist military advisers landing on the island and implanting batteries of “Iron Dome” anti-missile missiles, which to be ineffective, nevertheless remains a Zionist footprint in Bahrain, these are things that are not tolerated.
Hence no doubt this anticipatory approach undertaken by Pompeo, who blacklists Sayara-al-Mokhtar. Only by acting in this way do the USA and Israel make their case “aggravated”. According to the well-known analyst of Rai Al-Youm, Abdel Bari Atwan, the US project of blacklisting Saraya al-Mokhtar would even be a prelude to the inclusion of Yemeni Ansarallah on the blacklist and in both cs, it is the possibility of dialogue that is totally blocked between the Resistance and the regime in place. would block all avenues of peace negotiations in Yemen.
“By placing the name of Saraya al-Mokhtar on the blacklist, the Americans are lighting the fuse: because this group is not an extremist organization accused by Bahraini officials of killing policemen in this country or of plotting against the government. It is not even a group known regionally or globally. Its blacklisting may be a prelude to stronger sanctions against other Resistance groups such as Ansarallah, which is now a state actor and a regional power, whether the US likes it or not. But by punishing a local group like Saya-al-Mokhtar, the U.S. is committing a serious mistake on two levels: first, it is annihilating any possible dialogue between the anti-Israeli groups and then it is provoking these groups, which have ample opportunity to seek out the Americans.
“For by this story of normalization no one has been fooled: Certainly Israel claims to want to ensure the protection of its Gulf friends through military, political and trade agreements. It has even claimed to be ready to deploy flak batteries in the Emirates, or Bahrain. But in times like these in the Israeli settlements bordering Gaza or southern Lebanon, it would be a strategic mistake for the Abu Dhabi-Manana axis to rely on the military powers of Israel to protect itself from the Resistance’s strikes. Riyadh has made this mistake and is now paying the price in Jeddah and elsewhere.
The second mistake would be that by blacklisting Resistance groups in Bahrain, America is opening Pandora’s box. The Bahraini Shiites have never liked the US military presence on the island. They have more or less tolerated it. If the US starts to see them as targets to be shot down, it would be too easy for the Resistance, which has been suffering the worst ignominies since 2011, to take up arms and drive the US out of its Fifth Fleet. After all, Bahrain is just a few steps from the Iranian coast and it is even said that the Shiite majority of the island has Iranian roots. The British oil tanker that caught fire off Jeddah two days ago or the refinery that was hit by a Qods-2 missile could very easily be replaced by American targets. And then it would be the beginning of the end. The decision to blame a Bahraini group is so bizarre that it looks like a trump shot designed to pull the rug out from under Biden’s feet.
by Basit Abbasi