Deployment of Saudis in Bahrain disregards international law

Deployment of Saudis in Bahrain disregards international law

An analyst slams Saudi Arabia’s deployment of forces in Bahrain to help the regime forces in their crackdown on peaceful protests as being ‘totally illegal under international law.”

The comment comes as Bahraini regime forces have used sound bombs and tear gas to disperse demonstrators protesting against the deployment of Saudi forces to Bahrain in 2011.

The clashes between Bahraini forces and protesters came on Thursday as hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets in several villages. Protesters chanted slogans such as “No, no Saudi Occupier” and “Down with [king] Hamad.”

On March 14, 2011, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were deployed to assist the Bahraini regime in its crackdown on peaceful protests. According to local sources, scores of people have been killed and hundreds arrested.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Seyd Ali al-Wasif with the society of reforms and international research to further discuss the issue. What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Seyd Ali al-Wasif, if we were to look at this revolution can you please explain to us the role that Saudi Arabia has played in crushing so to speak the revolution from coming into fruition?

Wasif: Saudi Arabia has crossed all limits. It has violated international legal norms; it has invaded a sovereign country, a sovereign nation. It can be equated to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in the 90s.

So there is no difference between Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia’s invasion of Bahrain and in fact it has been annexed now as a kind of a province of Saudi Arabia. This is totally illegal under international law.

The Saudis should understand that this kind of atrocity, you know, lingers on. I think there will be a revolt in the backyard of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia together with the Bahraini opposition.

I think the global community, the United Nations and the human rights council of the United Nations that’s standing short of human rights and so on they should take part and solve this situation. The people of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia are being deprived of their fundamental rights under the United Nations charter and the universal declaration of human rights 1948 and other international conventions.