No reconciliation with Bahrain dictatorship

Colin Cavell, a former lecturer at the University of Bahrain, has appeared on Press TV’s The Debate program to share his thoughts on Al Khalifa regime’s heavy-handed crackdown on the Persian Gulf nation’s peaceful revolution.

Below is an approximate transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Colin Cavell, there was some sign of hope based on speculations made in March when the Bahrain appointment of this …, what they call, conciliation-minded crown prince as the first deputy prime minister. They called it a sign of progress.

Is there any way that the opposition and this first deputy prime minister can reach any type of mediation regarding what the opposition wants and they want a call for elections to create a constitutional monarchy.

Do you think that the first deputy prime minister will agree to something like that or even for that to be considered?

Cavell: Definitely opposition has negotiated with the regime for a number of years and the regime has been recalcitrant, they do not want any type of moderation, they do not want to yield any type of power.

With regards to what is the solution, the solution would be that outside powers like the United States withdraw from Bahrain and then they would have had democracy years ago.

Press TV: Colin Cavell, another point that many rights groups are criticizing and that is the government of the UK.

UK is urging more arms sales to Bahrain. This was based on a visit by a prince to the Counter Terror Expo, which happened. Even as a repressive Persian Gulf state, it is cracking down on the civilian protesters, you have this military cooperation that they call it counterterrorism.

What does that say about the UK government?

Cavell: The UK is as complicit in the propping up of this dictatorship, this 230-year-old monarchy in Bahrain, as is the United States. Both powers are subservient to the House of Saud and Saudi Arabia.

The big mistake is that we are continuing on with Franklin Donald Roosevelt’s agreement with the House of Saud to prop up this dictatorship in Saudi Arabia in perpetuity, supposedly in exchange for cheap oil but of course as most Americans and most Europeans know the oil is not so cheap anymore and it keeps getting increasingly higher because we are propping up regimes that the people cannot stand; over 40 years of dictatorship.

There is no solution except for the abdication of the Al Khalifa family in Bahrain.

Press TV: Colin Cavell, I need to ask you, is the US considering how their image is being tarnished by their support of the regime there?

Especially at this point and juncture in time where you have all these revolutions and uprising happening and again it shows the US’ support for regimes by selling arms for example.

We could start with Tunisia and work our way…, and looking at the revolutions there. The sentiments on the street by Arabs is that, well the US is supporting these regimes as it did like with Egypt.

So isn’t the US concerned about that?

Cavell: They should be, because the United States claims to be a supporter of democracy.

All Americans support democracy and yet if we understood exactly who we are supporting and who we are doing the bidding for in the Middle East right now, which is the corrupt House of Saud and all of these Persian Gulf monarchies, Americans would call our leaders traitors, this is appalling what we are doing.

And secondly I want to point out the fact that Bahrain as a small country, does not mean that it is insignificant.

I should remind Dr. Mostafa (another guest of the program) that England too…, the British Isles are relatively small in the world but they want to control the good part of the world.

So the question is how strategic is Bahrain? And Bahrain is very, extremely, strategic and every national security advisor in the United States would tell you that.

So Bahrain’s smallness in size does not represent its importance politically.

The United States needs to get on the side of the democracy. We need to support our core values as a democratic nation. We need to quit doing the bidding of the corrupt House of Saud and their old ministers and we need to support the freedom movement, the Arab Spring freedom movement, people who want to have some say in their lives, in the governing of their lives.

They are tired of dictatorship, they are tired of monarchy and they want freedom, they want freedom just like you and me and everyone else. They want a democratic country.

The question is, democracy or absolute monarchy. We cannot have monarchy and democracy coexisting.

I mean you could say that Britain has a constitutional monarchy but many British people would say that they have very little say in the running of their own government.

Press TV: Colin Cavell, when we talk about money and how the West goes for it, we could also add arms sales, in particular the UK, which seems to be on a roll with the prime minister.

We just, in the news, had it that four billion pounds of arms sold to Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf countries included in that.

What are we looking at in terms of any type of resolve coming through with Bahrain in terms of countries like the UK, like the US, pushing for some type of resolution in this, now, over two-year-old revolution that is going on there.

Cavell: Well, we are not pushing hard enough and the reason is because we are subservient to the House of Saud.

We are addicted to oil and the American people need to realize we have plenty of coal, we have plenty of other resources in this country. We do not need to prop up dictatorships, in the Middle East, whose values are directly contrary to the American traditional values.

We need to support freedom, we need to support democracy and we need to get away from our subservience to these autocratic dictators and you cannot have to compromise with a dictator, with a monarch who wants you to kiss his feet.

Either you are going to have freedom, you speak your mind, you associate with people you want to associate with, you have the freedom to believe and say what you want or you are going to be subservient to a monarch.

How can you have a compromise with a recalcitrant monarchy? And the Khalifas are definitely recalcitrant.

They are jailing people, they are torturing people, they are murdering people. They have already brought tremendous amounts of violence to the Bahraini people.

The Bahraini people are only exercising their natural rights and they are standing up for their freedom and I salute them.