VOICE OF RUSSIA: Interview with Guido Steinberg , expert with the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.
In the case of the US, the main interest is stability of oil and gas, not from Bahrain, I do not think it is exporting at all any more, but from Saudi Arabia, from the region in general, and that is why Bahrain is crucial. Secondly the US is interested in the NATO base in Bahrain which is important for them. Saudi Arabia sees Bahrain as kind of protectorate, and its interest is mainly defensive I would argue, it wants to keep Bahrain from falling under Shiite control, because it considers that the Shiite majority in Bahrain has been kind of the fifth column, and the fifth column of the Iranians. I do not think that this is necessarily correct, but if they keep on suppressing, discriminating against the Shia in Saudi Arabia and in Bahrain in the way they have been doing it in recent years, I think they might become Iranian fifth column. Bahrain itself is mainly interested in survival, it is a Sunni family, the royal family is the Sunni family, it is extremely corrupt, like all these ruling families in the Gulf, the state is a dictatorship, and of course the Shiites in the country want a different kind of government. And then Iran: and Iran is I think the most problematic question, they aim at building an Iranian hegemony in the region, in the region meaning in the Gulf region, but at the same time they have not been terribly active in recent years. I would argue that for the time being they are very much preoccupied with the domestic situation in Iran, but they keep an eye on what is going on in the Gulf, and as soon as they will have stabilized the situation in the country, as soon as the Americans have left Iraq, they will react to what is going on in Bahrain right now, because it is a Saudi step with the aim of deterring the Iranians to a certain extent. (+ audio) » | Kudashkina Ekaterina | Thursday, March 17, 2011
