Tehran
(AsiaNews/Agencies) – The Islamic Propagation Coordination Council (IPCC) organised
state-backed demonstrations today in Iran “to protest against the American plan
to annex Bahrain to Saudi Arabia and express their anger against the lackey regimes
of Al-Khalifa and Al-Saud.”
The
demonstrations targeted a plan by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which
includes Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait,
to turn itself into a European Union-styled organisation. On Monday, GCC leaders
agreed to a first step. Next December, a transitional deal should be signed
that would see Saudi Arabia and Bahrain form a union.
Bahrain
is governed by a Sunni monarchy even though most of the population is Shia. For
more than a year, the archipelago has been rocked by protests and
demonstrations that were met with repressive measures, in some occasions backed
by Saudi security forces.
For
the IPCC, the union plan is a “dangerous plot” instigated by “the
American-Zionist-Britain evil triangle to prevent popular uprisings spreading
into other countries of the region and to control the internal crisis in Bahrain
which has been caused by the inability of the Al-Khalifa regime to control the
situation”.
“Al-Saud
and Al-Khalifa should be aware that with this kind of plot they will not stop
the popular movement in Bahrain and the movement of Islamic awakening in the
region,” the Council added.
“Any
kind of foreign intervention or non-normative plans without respecting people’s
vote will only deepen the already existing wounds,” Iranian Foreign
Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said.
For
their part, Bahrain and the GCC condemned Iran for making
“provocative” comments, which show Tehran’s “hostile” and
“bad intentions” whilst causing “anxiety and tension across the
region.”
Bahrain’s
main opposition group, al-Wefaq, slammed the proposal. In a statement, the
group said that no country has the right to undermine Bahrain’s sovereignty and
independence.
Al-Wefaq
leader Sheikh Ali Salman called instead for a referendum on the issue in all
the six Arab Gulf countries.
