With the by-elections in Bahrain due on September 24, a leading independent local journalist, in a string of analytical reports, has warned against the dangers of Hezbollah taking over the Kingdom. Sawsan Al Shaer has also alerted people to be on guard against the Iran-backed party’s tricks to hoodwink the people. Interestingly, she also points out to the complicity of certain America elements in ensuring the nefarious plan succeeds.
“Unless national Bahraini forces from all walks of life – Sunnis, Shiites, Democrats – prove their ability to defend their rights and existence away from Eastern or Western foreign interventions, Hezbollah, supported by some US circles, will present Bahrain as a gift to the party to govern Bahrain in return for Iran’s securing of American troops’ safety in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bahrain and in the rest of the American bases in the Gulf!,” she claims in her analysis published in the local daily ‘Gulf Daily News’.
She refers to the Bahrain visit by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina in May after the GCC Roundabout was evacuated and the first round of the Hezbollah plan failed. At that time he met a Hezbollah member to prepare for the second round, says Sawsan.
“Hezbollah will do its best to facilitate the job for the Iranian negotiators in the coming days, and will try to make deals with the Bahraini authorities by increasing violent acts and expanding its range until the regime gets weak and yields to American demands,” she claims in her analysis.
She also said that while Iran was negotiating on the safety of the American troops in return for concessions for Hezbollah’s benefit in Iraq, Bahrain and Lebanon, “the support promised by some American circles for the Bahraini Hezbollah would not have been possible without marketing this backing in the US as support for the ‘Bahraini people’ – and not for Hezbollah… the campaign succeeded in its endeavour to distort facts because it marketed the events as an upheaval of an ‘opposition party’ – Hezbollah – that speaks on behalf of 70% of the Bahraini people.”
Stating that the Hezbollah has hijacked the voice of the Bahraini people, she makes an appeal to counter this situation and calls for a common and coherent political and civil action to counteract Hezbollah through a clear diplomatic message. According to her “Hezbollah propagated the idea among diplomatic and media circles claiming it represented 70% of the Bahraini people who are its members and followers while we did nothing to prove that this was wrong or to provide the correct figures and counter-arguments.”
She also wants the economic forces that suffered due to Hezbollah’s attitudes and the resulting grave economic effects to take action, particularly calling upon the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) to talk to its counterparts and explain the truth.
“Businessmen and economists, who have a great influence on the Congress, should also talk to the right Congressmen and the right committees. US consultant agencies should be approached as they play a great role in decision-making, and the national political forces should coordinate efforts to explain and clarify to them the true face of Bahraini Hezbollah as a terrorist party and how the Bahrainis oppose its attempts for hegemony.”
She also blames the Press for executing the party’s agenda. “Hezbollah wants to monopolise interaction with the regime in order to impose its own conditions and constitutional vision and thus be able, particularly in the current phase of special local, regional and international circumstances, to control the State.” Equally, she blames the state which, she says, was “too preoccupied with the Economic Vision 2030 to think of assimilating the village in the State and disentangling it from the fangs of Hezbollah.”
Her remedy for Bahrain to get out of this dilemma is for the Kingdom to carry on with its political reforms nonstop. “The by-elections and the ensuing constitutional amendments will be substantial strides on the path of democracy,” she says, adding that “I advise political powers, the Chamber of Commerce, the financial sector and all civil society powers to join and coordinate their efforts at the media and diplomatic levels so that the world pays attention to the true voice of the Bahraini people from all walks of life, both Sunnis and Shiites, who are independent of Hezbollah.”
