Bahraini Activist Urges US to Stop Supporting Al Khalifa Regime

A Bahraini activist called on the US to reconsider its Mideast policies, and specially stop its support for the Al Khalifa regime.
“It would be wise for the US to relinquish its support for the Al Khalifa regime when it cannot stop the bloodsheds in Bahrain …,” Ali Fayez, member of Bahrain’s ‘Tamarod (rebellion) Movement’, told FNA in Manama on Saturday.

He underlined that the US needs to reconsider its regional stances and the treaties it has signed with some countries of the Middle East.

Fayez described the Al Khalifa rulers as dictators who lack any legitimacy, and said, “One of the most important mistakes of the US is surely its policy on Bahrain, because Washington is still supporting the Al Khalifa regime although it knows that it is a dictatorial and blood-sucking regime facing a popular revolution.”

Fayez reiterated that the US failure in implementing its policies in the Middle East is due to its wrong coalitions with certain regional states.

Since mid-February 2011, thousands of pro-democracy protesters have held numerous demonstrations in the streets of Bahrain, calling for the Al Khalifa royal family to relinquish power.

On March 14, 2011, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates invaded the country to assist the Bahraini government in its crackdown on peaceful protesters.

According to local sources, scores of people have been killed and hundreds arrested.

Physicians for Human Rights says doctors and nurses have been detained, tortured, or disappeared because they have “evidence of atrocities committed by the authorities, security forces, and riot police” in the crackdown on anti-government protesters.