Hezbollah Official Urges Political Solution to Bahrain Turmoil

The Bahraini regime ought to realize that nothing but a peaceful political solution would lead to the resolution of the crisis in the Persian Gulf country, the Lebanese Hezbollah Resistance Movement’s second-in-command stressed.

The Manama regime should know that the only solution to the crisis in Bahrain is a political one and that suppression of dissent is futile, Sheikh Naim Qassem said in Tehran on Wednesday.

He made the comments at a ceremony held in honor of prominent Bahraini Shiite cleric Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Ahmad Qassim.

The Hezbollah official also urged the Al Khalifa regime to respect dignity of the Bahraini nation and Ayatollah Qassim.

The Lebanese figure then made a reference to the destructive results of military crackdown against people in the other regional countries, and hailed Ayatollah Qassim for insistence on peaceful movements and rejection of violent clashes.

During the ceremony, Sheikh Isa Ahmad Qassim was awarded the special prize of Iran’s Al-Mustafa International University.

The participants also praised the cleric as the paradigm of “jurisprudence and resistance”.

Bahrain, a close ally of the US in the Persian Gulf region, has been witnessing almost daily protests against the ruling Al Khalifa dynasty since early 2011, with Manama using heavy-handed measures in an attempt to crush the demonstrations.

Scores of Bahrainis have been killed and hundreds of others injured and arrested in the ongoing crackdown on the peaceful demonstrations