SHAFAQNA

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –Authorities in the United States believe that the two brothers suspected of detonating bombs at the Boston Marathon last week hoped to wreak similar havoc in New York City’s Times Square.

On Thursday afternoon, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a press conference that Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were planning to set off explosives in Midtown Manhattan.

“The surviving attacker revealed that New York City was next on their list of targets,” Mayor Bloomberg said, adding that details of the attempted terrorist attack surfaced in recent days while Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was being questioned by investigators.

Dzhokhar, 19, has reportedly since stopped speaking with authorities and remains hospitalized in Boston as he recovers from injuries incurred during last week’s manhunt and the subsequent shootouts with police. His brother and co-suspect in the bombings, 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was killed late last Thursday after an armed standoff with police in Watertown, Massachusetts. The younger Tsarnaev brother was captured the following evening and has since been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction for his alleged role in the Monday, April 15 terrorist attack in Boston, Massachusetts. Three people died in the blast.

Addressing the media earlier this week, New York Police Department Commissioner Ray Kelly said investigators suspected that the brothers plotted a trip to Manhattan after the bombing in order to “party.” At Thursday’s presser, however, Mayor Bloomberg said that his initial suspicions of a second terrorist attack plotted for the Big Apple have proved accurate.

“Ten days ago our city and nation received a horrific reminder that we remain targets for terrorists,” said Bloomberg, who stressed that the city of New York responded by immediately mobilizing the NYPD’s “vast counterterrorism operations” in order to combat any follow-up attacks.

“We now know that that possibility was in fact all too real,” he told reporters.

Bloomberg and Kelly said that this past Wednesday evening they were informed by the Joint Terrorism Task Force that the two Tsarnaev brothers intended to drive more than 200 miles from Boston to New York to detonate additional explosives in Times Square, the Midtown Manhattan landmark that attracts more than a quarter of a million people each day.

According to Kelly, Dzhokhar “initially told investigators that he and his brother decided after the Boston bombings that they would go to New York City to party. However, subsequent questioning of Dzhokhar revealed that he and his brother decided spontaneously on Times Square as a target.”

The brothers, said Bloomberg, “had the capability to carry out the attack.” Kelly claimed the men planned to bring six explosives in all: five pipe bombs and one pressure cooker device similar to the the ones used in Boston.

Earlier Thursday, Reuters cited anonymous sources who said the brothers intended to make the trip to New York a week earlier after hijacking a vehicle outside of Boston in the town of Cambridge, but unexpected complications caused them to put the plot on hold.

“They discussed this while driving around in the Mercedes SUV that they hijacked,” said Kelly. “The plan, however, fell apart when they realized that the vehicle that they hijacked was low on gas.”

Authorities say the Tsarnaev brothers stole the SUV last Thursday evening after a firefight erupted between the bombing suspects and a Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus police officer. Twenty-six-year-old Officer Sean A. Collier was killed in the shoot-out just after 10 p.m. last Thursday and that incident rekindled a manhunt for the alleged terrorists thought responsible for the marathon bombing three days earlier. Police would pursue the two brothers across the Boston area that evening, during which the pair reportedly threw a number of explosives out of their automobile. The car-chase took authorities to the town of Watertown, where Tamerlan Tsarnaev died following another firefight with police.

Police say that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev ran over his brother’s body in the stolen Mercedes while fleeing the scene of that incident and was captured the following evening. Nearly one week later, though, information is finally being released about a second, perhaps much deadlier attempted terrorist attack.

Kelly said that authorities are unsure of when or where the brothers would have detonated the explosives had they successfully made the trip to Times Square, but that surveillance footage recorded earlier on April 18, 2012 has provided investigators with proof that Dzhokhar visited Manhattan last year. An additional photo obtained by the NYPD links Dzhokhar with being in Manhattan this past November.

“The role of surveillance cameras played in identifying the suspects was absolutely essential in saving lives, both in Boston and now we know in New York City,” said Bloomberg.

Kelly added that additional people caught on film with Dzhokhar during a visit to New York have been identified as well and that an investigation into the matter is going forward.

Had the brothers made it to Manhattan, Bloomberg said they would have seen “an enormous police presence,” but would have been unaware of the city’s vast collection of public surveillance cameras. The New York Civil Liberties Union believes that are at least 2,400 of those cameras in New York, and real-time data is reportedly sent directly to US Department of Homeland Security fusion centers that spend millions of dollars annually to investigate and interrupt alleged terrorist attacks.

“The investments that we’ve made in counterterrorism operations, technology and intelligence help reduce the possibility of a successful terrorist strike,” said Bloomberg, all the while cautioning that more could be done to deter future attempts — especially those in New York, described by the mayor during the afternoon presser as a “prime target for those that hate America and want to kill Americans.”

-www.shafaqna.com/English

Source:RT

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – The Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi said that bullying is behind the world’s problems and humans cannot solve the problems of security and justice without the divine power. According to Shafaqna’s reporter in Qom, the Grand Ayatollah pointed to the world wars and said the world we live in has no rules, for instance Israel allows itself to make threats to attack and the USA supports it. He criticised the roles played by the international institutions and questioned their purposes. The Grand Ayatollah Makarem said it is really shameful that such threats are made and then the American congress discusses ways of supporting these threats.

He said we should ask on what basis and which rules these threats are made. This shows that there is no difference between today’s word and the times of world wars and the bullies attack without any authorisation. He questioned whether security can be established in the world in this type of environment. In his final remarks, the Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi stressed that humans cannot solve the problems of security and justice without divine help and must pray for such times. He expressed the hope that with Allah’s (SWT) permission the appearance of Imam Mahdi (AS) will occur and by the reliance on the divine power, this will lead to clearing the world of bullies, oppressors and illogical people.

www.shafaqna.com/english

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –Chanting anti-US slogans, the protesters on Tuesday blocked a road linking the capital, Kabul to Balkh Province

The protesters complained that Afghans are often detained in night-time operations by foreign forces without any legal justifications. 
The detainees are then taken to unknown places without coordination with Afghan authorities. Locals say US-led troops are never held accountable for the unwarranted detentions. 
In February, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed deep concern at the arrest and detention of Afghan children by US-led forces. 
According to the UN report, some of the children were abused in US detention facilities. 
The committee called on the US to take measures to prevent the killing and maiming of civilians and children. 
Human Rights Watch has called on the US to promptly carry out the UN recommendations to improve the protection of children in the war-stricken country. 
In December 2012, a report, sent every four years to the United Nations regarding the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, revealed that the US military had detained over 200 Afghan teenagers since 2008. 
The United States and its allies invaded Afghanistan in 2001 on the pretext of combating terrorism. The offensive removed the Taliban from power, but years into the invasion, insecurity remains in the country.

-www.shafaqna.com/English

Source:FNA

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –The leader in Hamas movement, Salah Bardawil, confirmed that the movement's Political Bureau has held in Doha its first meeting, after its Internal elections.

Bardawil told Quds Press that the newly elected Political Bureau of the movement has discussed files related to the bureau's internal affairs and the prominent Palestinian issues.

The meeting, chaired by Khaled Mashaal and attended by the elected Politburo members, "was held in good conditions and dealt with all the issues related to Politburo internal affairs, the prominent Palestinian issues topped by the national Palestinian reconciliation, emphasizing the Egyptian and Qatari efforts in this regard, he explained.

The meeting also discussed the ending of the Israeli siege imposed on the Gaza Strip, in addition to the Israeli continued threats and ways to activate the Arab and international position in support of the Palestinian issues," he added.

"The political bureau has welcomed the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's upcoming visit and denounced the American intervention to cancel it," he said.

For his part, Osama Hamdan, head of the international relations department in Hamas, said that Recep Tayyip Erdogan's upcoming visit serves the Palestinian cause and denied that it obstructs reconciliation.

Hamdan condemned the attempts to pressure the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to cancel his planned visit to the Gaza Strip, saying that any Arab or Muslim official's visit to Gaza has a positive impact on the Palestinian cause and sends a message to the occupation that the Palestinian people is not alone.

Such attempts to cancel this visit reinforce the division and only serve the occupation, he added.

We are interested in all forms of moral, material and political support to the Palestinian cause, and such visits constitute important political support, he said, adding that any attempt to cancel the visit targets the Palestinian issue.

The supreme Palestinian national interest requires encouraging such Arab and Islamic visits to the Gaza strip to support the Palestinian cause, he pointed.

He denied that Erdogan's visit is related to the reconciliation process, confirming that such visits would support the national reconciliation.

Attempts to cancel the visit encourage the Israeli continued violations of the Palestinian rights and reinforce the division. -www.shafaqna.com/English

Source:PIC

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –The hospitalized Boston Marathon bombing suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was charged Monday with using a weapon of mass destruction – and the White House said he will be tried in a civilian court.

“He will not be treated as an enemy combatant. We will prosecute this terrorist through our civilian system of justice,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said.

“Under U.S. law, United States citizens cannot be tried in military commissions. And it is important to remember that since 9/11 we have used the federal court system to convict and incarcerate hundreds of terrorists.”

Tsarnaev, 19, a naturalized U.S. citizen of Chechen origin, made his initial court appearance at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical  Center, where he was listed in serious condition.

He was advised of his rights and charged with one count of using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction in the U.S. and one count of malicious destruction of property with an explosive device.

He was assigned three federal public defenders. The charges could carry the death penalty.

The suspect agreed to "voluntary detention," but declined to answer questions about bail, according to a court record. A probable cause hearing was set for May 30.

"Today's charges bring a successful end to a tragic week for the city of Boston and for our country," Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement.

"We will hold those who are responsible for these heinous acts accountable to the fullest extent of the law."

A criminal complaint laid out some of the evidence against Tsarnaev, who was arrested Friday after a daylong manhunt, and his brother, Tamerlan, who was killed during a firefight with police.

A black jacket and white hat, matching the ones worn by "Suspect No. 2" in surveillance video, were found in the younger brother's dorm room, along with green strands of fuse like those used in the marathon explosives that killed three and wounded more than 170.

The video also captured the suspect making a cellphone call seconds before the first bomb exploded on the east end of Boylston St. during last Monday's race, and his utter calm in the face of spreading panic, the complaint said. The footage showed him hurrying away from his knapsack just 10 seconds before a blast erupted where he left it.

Tsarnaev was brought to the hospital with gunshot wounds to the head, neck, leg and hand. He had been communicating with investigators in writing because he couldn't speak, federal officials told NBC News. It's unclear what he told them.

The FBI has not revealed a motive for the attack last Monday that killed three people -- one of whom, Krystle Campbell, was laid to rest in Medford on Monday. Investigators are still probing whether the brothers received assistance from others, officials said.

7 biggest unanswered questions in Boston bombing

The feds have asked to speak with Tamerlan's wife, Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, who converted to Islam after she met her future husband at a nightclub. She dropped out of college, got married and had a baby three years ago.

Her lawyer, Amato DeLuca, told The Associated Press he was trying to work out the details of an interview.

His client, he said, worked up to 80 hours a week as a home health aide while Tamerlan watched their daughter. He said she didn't have any suspicions he might be plotting something.

He said she last saw her husband at home on Thursday morning, hours before he and his younger brother allegedly executed a campus police officer, pulled off the carjacking, and led police on a wild bomb-tossing chase that ended in a 200-bullet gun battle.

The carjacking victim told police his abductor asked if he'd heard of the marathon bombing and then said "I did that."

The man, who has asked that his identity not be revealed, told NBC News that he managed to escape and called his captors “brutal and cautious.”

Boston's top police official said Monday that while there are many unanswered questions, the city can rest easy.

"We're satisfied the two main actors, the people that were committing the damage out there, have been either captured or killed," Police Commissioner Ed Davis said on TODAY.

"There is still an open question as to exactly what happened in this investigation," he said. "We can't say with 100 percent certainty...anything, actually, at this point."

Among the mysteries Tsarnaev could solve is what his brother did when he traveled to Russia last year and who he met.

Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said on “Meet the Press” that trip could be when Tamerlan "got that final radicalization to push him to commit acts of violence and where he may have received training."

Authorities are also trying to figure out where the suspects got their bomb-making supplies and guns. Cambridge Police said neither one had the necessary permits to carry firearms.

Immigration officials have arrested two of Tamerlan Tsarnaev's friends on immigration violations, days after they were detained and questioned by police in New Bedford, Mass. -www.shafaqna.com/English

Source:NBC news

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –At least three people are dead following twin explosions in Boston, Massachusetts, where thousands of runners were participating in the annual Boston Marathon. Local media report over 100 people have been injured.

Two explosions occurred near the finish line of the 26.2-mile (42km) event at 2:50pm local time (18:50 GMT), and the Boston Globe is reporting three deaths and more than 100 injuries.

The FBI confirmed that the blasts were a terror attack, according to federal sources cited by CNN.

Follow RT's Live Updates on the blasts.

Federal aviation authorities have declared a no-fly zone over the area and authorities including the US Air Force continue to attempt to secure the scene. The aviation restrictions have reportedly extended to an order that all flights out of Boston's Logan Airport be grounded until further notice.

An intelligence official working on the scene told the Associated Press that two additional explosive devices were found inside garbage cans near the site. Other reports say there were a total of five unexploded devices found following the blasts.

As law enforcement look for further explosives, they have reportedly told people in the area to stay off mobile phones for fears that the signal could detonate another undiscovered device.

A source at Boston's Mass General hospital claimed that at least 10 patients have been admitted to the facility's emergency room with missing limbs after the accident.

Police denied a claim by the New York Post that a 20-year-old Saudi Arabian national was in custody as a suspect in the blasts.

RT spoke to eyewitness Yury Sulyemanov, who as a spectator was standing meters from the blasts.

"I think absolutely everyone around me thought it was just somewhat expected fireworks, as it was so close to the finish line. But then we heard the second explosion and it was much closer to us," he told RT.

"Runners were asking to use our phones so they could text their families and tell them they were all right."

Boston's John F. Kennedy Library was affected by a fire as well Monday afternoon, with initial reports linking it to the attack at the marathon. However, it was later reported to be a separate and unrelated case.

The Boston Marathon’s headquarters have reportedly put on locked down while authorities investigate the incident. Both US President Barack Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden have been made aware of the tragedy.

"Obama has directed administration to provide whatever assistance is necessary in the investigation and response,” a White House official tells the Globe.

Eyewitnesses say smoke filled the streets of the city after a first explosion, and seconds later another loud boom was heard.

“I saw  two explosions. The first one was beyond the finish line. I heard a loud bang and I saw smoke rising,” Boston Herald reporter Chris Cassidy said from the scene. “I kept running and I heard behind me a loud bang. It looked like it was in a trash can or something.”

“There are people who have been hit with debris, people with bloody foreheads,” he says.

Witness Andrea Storer adds to the Globe, “It was huge. There had to be people killed. There had to be.”

"Blood everywhere,” another witness tells the paper.

The event has been put on hold and paramedics are quickly trying to assess the situation.

Earlier in the afternoon, 23-year-old Ethiopian runner Lelisa Desisa came in first-place by completing the run in 2 hours, 10 minutes and 22 seconds. At the time of the explosions, though, hundreds of runners were still racing for the finish line.

Organizers call the event the "world's oldest annual marathon and one of the world's most prestigious road races.”

Among the wounded are a two-year-old boy with a head injury, a nine-year-old girl with leg trauma and six other children under the age of 15. The children are being treated at Boston Children's Hospital, which has declined to provide further details about the condition of the patients.

Medical officials at Massachusetts General Hospital said they were treating 29 victims for injuries that ranged from “cuts and bruises to serious shrapnel wounds,” Reuters reported.

Surgeons said they had performed several amputations by mid-evening on Monday.

The names of the victims have not been publicly revealed.

Peter Fagenholz, a trauma surgeon at Mass General, said the most serious cases - none of them children - arrived at the hospital within the first 15 minutes. And while he said the injuries were not"other worldly," the scale of the incident caught him off guard.

He said the oldest patient he cared for was 71.

"We take care of accidents all the time. It's just depressing that this was intentional," Fagenholz said, as quoted by Reuters.

He said many of the patients would have a difficult recovery.

"A number of patients will require repeat operation tomorrow and serial operations over the next couple of days." -www.shafaqna.com/English

Source:RT

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- Bloomerg reports that four out of the five highest-rewarded execs in Standard & Poor’s top 500 companies are Apple execs. In all four cases, their base salaries are a relatively modest $805,400, with the balance paid in stock options.

The four Apple employees are Bob Mansfield, Senior VP of Technologies ($85.5m); Bruce Sewell, Apple’s lead lawyer ($69m); Jeffrey Williams, Senior VP of Operations ($68.7m); and Peter Oppenheimer, Chief Financial Officer ($68.6m) …

Apple CEO Tim Cook was officially way down the rankings at #1,016 with a $4.17m package, but this doesn’t quite tell an accurate story: Cook is mainly rewarded in long-term restricted stock which vests over a decade, meaning that his current remuneration is a small part of his likely eventual earnings.

Only one CEO earned more than the four Apple execs: Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, at $96.2m.

www.shafaqna.com/English

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –The Pentagon has put on hold an intercontinental ballistic missile test in California, planned for next week, citing rising tensions with North Korea.

According to an official, speaking to AP on condition of anonymity, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has expressed concern that performing any tests at present could be misconstrued and lead to an escalation of the situation with North Korea. He therefore, decided to postpone the 'Minuteman 3' missile test until next month, the official said on Friday – although the test itself bears no connection to the ongoing military exercises between South Korea and the US around the Korean Peninsula.

The defense official added that "this is the logical, prudent and responsible course of action to take."

The 450 'Minuteman 3' missiles America has can circle the globe, and are part of the three branches of the US nuclear arsenal. Other such weapons include submarine-launched ballistic missiles and those capable of being launched by bombers and stealth bombers, like the B-52 and the B-2.

Some of the latest developments in the current escalation of war rhetoric between the United States and North Korea have included Pyongyang declaring that it now has final approval for a nuclear strike on US bases in the Pacific and South Korea. The announcement earlier this week came on the heels of the US deploying its F-22 fighter jets, a ‘USS Fitzgerald’ destroyer, and strengthening its missile defenses in the region.

In the meantime, North Korea has sent out a proposal to all foreign embassies on its territory to evacuate, although, so far no embassy has done so.

“The security of the German embassy and its exposure to danger are continually being evaluated,” the German Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “For now, the embassy can continue working.”

Currently, about two dozen countries have embassies in North Korea. Most of the represented governments have already made it clear they had no immediate plans to withdraw personnel; some suggested the advisory was just a ruse to fuel growing global anxiety over the current crisis on the Korean Peninsula.

“We believe they have taken this step as part of their country's rhetoric that the US poses a threat to them,” a British Foreign Office spokeswoman said.

Tensions are now higher than they have been at any moment during this latest standoff, which followed Pyongyang’s third mid-range missile test in February, provoking international condemnation and a fresh round of UN Security Council sanctions, to which Pyongyang has replied with the threat of a nuclear strike on the US.

Last week, Pyongyang declared it had entered a state of war with its southern neighbor, following an earlier decision to withdrawal from the 60-year armistice that ended the Korean War. North Korea had previously threatened to pull out of the 1953 armistice if the South did not halt a joint annual military exercise with the US.

Despite the worrying rhetoric and the displays of military power between the two countries, Washington says it has no evidence of North Korea engaging in any kind of mobilization effort for a large-scale attack.-www.shafaqna.com/English

Source :RT

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – The Islamic Party of Al-Ummah has stressed that the Saudi regime came to power by British, nurtured by the USA and has no independence. According to Al-Arabia News, the Islamic party which is banned in the Saudi Arabia has warned of an American plan in the region. The Islamic Party has blamed this on instability and aimlessness in Islamic Arabic countries. The Al-Ummah party emphasized that after House of Al-Saud came to power, took away the will of its nation and placed itself under the protection of the USA without having any political plans. The Islamic Party pointed to the necessity of any country having a special strategy and clear policies stressing that the current Saudi regime has no role in the region and has been pushed to the sidelines.

www.shafaqna.com/english

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association)- The following is an interesting and perceptive view posted today to the G2K mailing list by Georgetown University's Jean-Francois Seznec, who agreed to let me post it here:

A few small facts and rumors may be pointing to a faint ray of hope at the end of a long tunnel in Bahrain.

1. One of the Royal family members broke the rule of silence within the Al Khalifas in Bahrain and spoke to the Wall Street Journal of the rift in the family between the liberals and the “khawalites”. Although, there have been calls in the family to investigate to find out who this Sheikh may be, nothing has happened to this person, at least not yet. Furthermore, the more liberal Crown Prince has been promoted to Deputy PM.
2. Sheikh Khalid bin Ali Al Khalifa, the Bahraini Minister of Justice was reported by the Kuwait News Agency to have announced a delay in the talks with the opposition on power sharing. The delay is certain, but the words “power sharing” are quite new and speak volumes ...
3. At the same time, major changes have taken place in Saudi Arabia with Prince Muqrin bin AbdelAziz getting a major leg up to be the next in line after the very ill Prince Salman. Prince Muqrin is thought to be very close to King Abdullah and often seen to be quite liberal on social and economic issues. He is well educated and traveled.
4. One observer mentioned on G2K and elsewhere that Prince Mita’eb bin Abdullah of Saudi Arabia sent his chief of staff to push the Bahraini leadership into accommodating some of the opposition’s demand.
5. For the past few months there has been a mounting campaign in Washington by various NGOs, think tanks and within the diplomacy and the defense establishment to close the Navy base in Bahrain. The topic is hotly debated and arguments go from “the closure is impossible” to “it would be quite feasible”. Rightly or wrongly, it seems that the pro-closure arguments seem to be winning the day.
6. It appears that the relationship between the US and the Bahraini authorities are at an all time low. There are credible rumors that the US Ambassador’s and the Navy base Admiral’s calls to the higher levels in Bahrain are not returned.

Taking all these facts together leads me to believe that the US has finally found a handle to influence the Bahraini Royal Family extremists, mentioned in the Wall Street Journal. This group, which has ruthlessly played the sectarian card, did manage to split the country and in a sense has made the majority of the population become highly susceptible to Iranian mingling. This may have been acceptable to the more conservative Saudis, but undoubtedly has gone against the previous policies of King Abdullah to make Islam in Saudi Arabia and in the Arab world inclusive of all sects and tendencies, where both Sunni’s and Shi’a can live in good intelligence.

The intervention in Bahrain by the Saudis and UAE took place at a time when King Abdullah was very ill. When he was not available to make policy in the early part of 2011, it seems that the Bahraini extremists made their case to the more conservative elements of the Saudi Royal family and won the day, getting the Saudis to make a strong gesture of support to the Al Khalifas in Bahrain and against any power sharing arrangement with the Shi’a opposition.

The facts/rumors mentioned above show that things might be changing. Most important, King Abdullah has been able to regain some strength. Many of his clear-cut decisions of the past few months show that he wants to establish his legacy on a strong footing. His push for including women in the Majlis asShura, the nomination of younger princes in position of power, and the naming of Prince Muqrin as Second Deputy PM are important. It seems, now, that he has put one of his sons in charge of the Bahrain policy, which could lead to an accommodation between the more reasonable elements of the Shi’a opposition in Bahrain and the more reasonable elements within the Al Khalifas, thereby shunting the "khawalites".

Also, the strong rumor of the US closing the large Navy base, which may be music to the ears of the Al Khalifa extremists, must be worrying the Saudis. It may be worth remembering that the base was not established in Bahrain to protect the Al Khalifas. It is there to defend Saudi Arabia. It was developed at the behest of the Saudis not the Bahrainis. Saudi Arabia cares greatly to have the base there as first line of defense against Iran. Should we close the base, transfer the command to the Qatar Air Base, the ships at sea and send a few thousand men/women back home, it will be perceived in the Gulf as weakening the Saudi defenses and the Saudi Royal Family.

Thus, it would appear that the Saudis must push the Al Khalifas to abandon their policy of squashing the Shi’a majority to protect their own parochial interest. The Saudis would be motivated by the desire to limit the appeal of Iran on the Arab Shi’a of Bahrain and by the need to ensure that the US base stays in Bahrain. One can surmise that Prince Muqrin, a popular prince in the Kingdom and a man highly respected for his intellect in the West, and Prince Mita’eb a younger but also respected royal may have decided to implement a policy of pushing their poor royal cousins in Manama to come up with solutions to the crisis that go beyond hiring expensive PR consultants in Washington.

Another way and more US centric view of the situation is that finally, the US may have found a handle on pushing for change in Bahrain. By truly and credibly looking into the base closing, Washington can influence the Saudis to impose a credible change in Bahrain without having to negotiate with the unreliable and ideological Bahraini royal extremists. Should this be the case and should it work, it would show that the US diplomacy is more sophisticated than often given credit for.

source : bahraini politics

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