6th/ 7th/ 8th December 2013

BAHRAIN MEDIA ROUNDUP

Pro-democracy protests in Bahrain ahead of international forum
Demonstrators calling for democratic reform clashed with police Friday in Shiite villages near Manama ahead of an international forum on Middle East security, witnesses said. A Shiite-led uprising to demand changes in the Sunni-ruled kingdom was crushed in March 2011 but almost weekly protests against the authorities have been since staged in Shiite villages around Manama. On Friday, dozens of protesters, mostly youths, clashed with police in the villages of Sanabis, Deraz, Sitra and Diya, hurling stones and petrol bombs at the security forces, witnesses said. Read More as 14. We dont even know how many.

Tear gas replaces talk in Bahrains liberal oasis

MOHAMMED al-Tajer is a busy man. The main defence lawyer for opposition politicians and human rights activists in Bahrain, he has an astonishing 380 clients in jail. We are working all hours, he says of his rm of ve lawyers and two assistants. Every day more people are being picked up. Human rights workers, journalists, photographers . . . men, women, children as young

Once seen as a liberal oasis in the Gulf, the tiny kingdom of Bahrain has for many become a place of fear and repression. Yesterday Crown Prince Salman met William Hague, the foreign secretary, and assured him of his commitment to political reform. But opponents and human rights agencies say the regime has launched a brutal crackdown in recent months. Read More (subscription needed)

Bahrain jails 12 Shiites over attack on police

A Bahraini court today sentenced 12 Shiites, including three minors, to prison terms of up to ve years for attacking a police patrol with Molotov cocktails, a judicial source said. The nine adults were sentenced to ve years in jail each while the three

minors were handed down three-year sentences for the April 2012 attack in a Shiite suburb of Manama. The jail terms are the latest to be handed down to Shiites accused of violence in the Sunni-ruled Gulf monarchy. A Shiite-led uprising to demand democratic reform was crushed in March 2011 but protests have continued in Shiite villages and districts around Manama. Read More Speaking to sailors on the deck of a US ship at a naval base in Bahrain, Hagel said the American military would maintain its high-prole role in the region during a six-month interim deal with Iran. "I will assure our partners that we're not going anywhere," he said before talks with leaders from Bahrain and other Gulf states. Read More

Demonstrators clash with police in Bahrain

Demonstrators calling for reform clashed with police on Friday in Shiite villages near Manama ahead of an international forum on Middle East security, witnesses said. Dozens of protesters, mostly youths, clashed with

police in the villages of Sanabis, Deraz, Sitra and Diya, hurling stones and petrol bombs at the security forces, witnesses said. The protesters also blocked roads with burning tyres, the witnesses said. Police responded by ring tear gas and sound bombs to disperse them, they added. There were no immediate reports of casualties. Read More

US to keep up robust military role in Gulf: Hagel

The United States has no plans to scale back its strong military presence in the Gulf despite a diplomatic opening with Iran, Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel said Friday.

rulers of Bahrain warned on Sunday. In an exclusive interview with The Telegraph, Sheikh Salman bin Hamad alKhalifa, the Crown Prince of Bahrain, warned that Barack Obama's administration would lose inuence in the region if it persisted with what a transient and reactive foreign policy. Read More

'Schizophrenic' US foreign policy pushing Arab states toward Russia, Bahrain warns
Americas schizophrenic approach to the Middle East could result in many key Arab states deciding to align themselves more closely with Russia, the

US reassures Gulf states amid Iran nuclear deal fears

Chuck Hagel, the US Defence Secretary, today sought to reassure Gulf states concerned about the recent nuclear deal with Iran by providing an unprecedented breakdown of Americas military presence in the region.

Several leading proWestern Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, have expressed displeasure about the recent interim agreement reached with Iran in Geneva over its nuclear programme, fearing that it could result in the U.S. abandoning its longestablished ties with Gulf states in return for better relations with Tehran. Read More

UK foreign secretary looks to reassure Gulf allies

Britain's top diplomat voiced his country's strong commitment to the security of the Gulf states on Friday, seeking to reassure wary Arab allies in the wake of last month's nuclear deal with their regional rival Iran. Foreign Secretary William Hague told representatives at a regional security

summit in the Bahraini capital Manama that last month's deal between world powers and Iran in Geneva does not imply any lessening of the U.K.'s commitments to its alliances in the region. "The U.K. and other Western countries must retain and also strengthen our commitment to stability in the Gulf," Hague said, adding that Britain is extending "deliberately and for the long-term" its defense and security cooperation with the region. Read More In a lively debate at the IISS security summit in Bahrain, GCC ofcials made clear their concerns that the nuclear issue is not the only problem with Iran, and if Iran is to be welcomed back to the regional community it needs to stop trying to destabilise its neighbours. Read More

Manama Diaolgue to open amid cautious optimism

Top international diplomats and defence and security ofcials will gather on Friday evening in the Bahraini capital Manama for the rst major international security conference following the interim accord between the worlds powers and Iran in Geneva last month.

The agreement was welcomed by the sixmember countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), but expressed hopes that it would help boost security and stability in the region in a clear indication that the rapprochement between the US, their major security partner, and Iran, whom they have often accused of interference in their domestic affairs, must not be at their expense. Read More Ponce, commissioned in 1971, to serve as an advanced Navy control center. Its crew of 55 Navy sailors and 120 civilian mariners supports the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, which is stationed in Bahrain. Hagel said from Manama the USS Ponce represents "the future of our naval operations." Read More

US senator stresses GCC role in any Iran deal

Any permanent agreement with Iran needs GCC involvement, a ranking US senator told Gulf News, although he disagreed with a senior Saudi nongovernment ofcial on the mechanics of achieving such a role.

Hagel notes military commitments while in Bahrain

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the American military presence in Bahrain offered an opportunity for long-term engagement in the region. The U.S. military recongured the USS

Mideast turmoil, union proposal top Gulf summit agenda

Gulf Arab states will hold a summit this week to discuss a controversial proposal to form an EU-like union at a time of regional turmoil and fresh Iranian overtures. Saudi Arabia and other oilrich monarchies, already rattled by the turmoil unleashed by the 2011 Arab

Spring, fear a landmark nuclear agreement reached last month could herald a wider rapprochement between the West and their regional rival Iran. But a proposal to develop the Gulf Cooperation Council into a fully-edged union has proven divisive, with Oman threatening to leave the GCC if the idea is approved. The group also includes Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. Read More Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, and Bahrain - are set to convene in Kuwait this week for the organisation's 34th summit. "We are watching for signs of differences in point of view. There will be a change in conventional thoughts," said Theodore Karasik, a security and political affairs analyst at the Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis.

Divergent views on Gulf union emerge

The public divergence in the views on the Gulf union between two members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) represented the most salient feature of the second day of the Manama Dialogue. The international security conference in the Bahraini capital, held for the ninth time, started with a much-

anticipated keynote address by US Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel. The US ofcial, the rst US secretary of defence to take part in the dialogue since 2008, gave several assurances about Washingtons commitment to a region growing suspicious about the US intentions following last months deal between the worlds leading powers and Iran over its nuclear programme. Read More

Gulf states hesitant about Iranian overtures

Strained ties between the Gulf Cooperation Council and Iran may be due for a change in course, as Iran reaches out to make amends with its neighbours as part of an overall shift in its international policy. Leaders of the GCC's six member states - Saudi