TEHRAN – A Bahraini political activist says the Bahraini regime’s function is to serve the interests of Western powers in the region.

“Their first job is to serve Western powers' interests in this region, and the second is to suppress their peoples,” Ibrahim Madhoun tells the Tehran Times.

The following is the text of the interview:

Q: Why are the Persian Gulf states rushing to normalize ties with Israel? 

A: Whoever reads history knows that Great Britain created the (Persian) Gulf regimes. Everyone knows that Britain was a colonial power in this region that came under the title of securing navigation between the East and the West through the East India Company.

Therefore, it fabricated these tyrannical regimes before the Balfour Declaration that was implemented in 1940.

After establishment, the Emirati rulers were engaged in maritime piracy, as well as the Al Khalifa government, which took Al Zubarah castle as a base for its attacks to occupy Bahrain and expel Iran's ruler in Bahrain, Nasser Al Madhkour.

 So, Britain saw that these tribes could implement their plans to change the region's map through occupying Palestine.

These regimes function in favor of colonialism and oppress their own people within the framework of the task defined for them.

For these reasons, these systems do not have any authority to make a decision. This rush towards normalization comes from the orders of their masters (Britain or America). Today we see that U.S. President Trump from Washington imposes his orders on these regimes to normalize relations with Israel in order to use this paper in the upcoming presidential elections and to satisfy the Jews who have a pivotal role in tipping the scales in favor of the candidates in the United States.

Q: Do you expect the rest of Arab countries to follow the Emirates and Bahrain to establish ties with Israel?

A: The Arab countries are divided into two parts: The first part, including countries of the Persian Gulf, are established by Britain or France. In some of these countries, there are wise and vigilant peoples but they cannot make any changes. For example, Egypt has great people, but they have been suppressed, but in Algeria, Tunisia, and other countries, like Iraq for example, I do not expect their nations to allow their governments to follow Bahrain and the Emirates. 

There are some countries, such as Sudan, whose people reject normalization, but there is repression. The (Persian) Gulf states are mostly committed to America's policy, and Washington dictates what policy they should follow. 

However, Kuwait's reaction is different, while the rest of the (Persian) Gulf states, even Oman, prefer to establish relations with Israel, exchange visits, and embassies. It is not too far to join the UAE and Bahrain. But in case Saudi Arabia establishes relations with Israel, there will be a strong reaction because it is home to two Holy Mosques (Mecca and Madinah), and claiming it is leading the Islamic world.
I think it is an opportunity for the Muslims to make an agreement for managing the two Holy Mosques under a multi-national Islamic organization rather than Saudi management, who betrayed Islamic causes. 

One day, Muslim nations will rise, and their reaction will be greater, especially the Bahraini people's reaction, who have had great reactions towards the Palestinian cause.

Q: Do you think that the Palestinian cause has died after the normalization of relations between Israel and Arab countries?

A: We cannot say that the Palestinian issue has ended. When we refer to the Holy Quran, there is a divine promise that Palestine will be liberated.

The Palestinian cause has been present for more than seventy years despite the disappointing behavior of Arab rulers and their collusion against Al-Quds, and despite the fact that many regimes which call themselves Arab and also Turkey normalized relations with Israel. There is a brave and vigilant Palestinian people. There is also an Arab and Islamic conscience that has not died, but it has been strengthened, especially after the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. 

The Palestinian cause is associated with religion and watchful people; perhaps there is a fall and rise in this path, but it is present and alive.

Today there is an axis that wants to defend this cause, which is the axis of resistance led by the Islamic Republic of Iran and Syria and the resistance in Lebanon, Palestine, and Iraq, even in Egypt that signed the Camp David agreement. The Egyptian people, despite this agreement, refuse to recognize the Zionist regime.
 

Q: What is the U.S. role in hurriedly encouraging Arab countries to establish ties with Israel?

The American role is well known. Its role is to strengthen the Zionist regime in the region, control the Arab and Islamic nations' capabilities. America and Britain use this tool to dominate the world, and the normalization that we see today comes to help Trump's electoral campaign because the polls say that Trump is behind his rival Biden. In the end, America is the biggest Satan, as Imam Khomeini said, and Israel is a cancerous tumor in this region.  America cannot dominate the world unless through supporting this regime, but today we see a decline in American power and the rise of other powers, for example, China, Russia, and Iran.
 

Q: Why didn’t we see a protest from the Arab nations?

A: Because these regimes have special functions. Their first job is to serve Western powers' interests in this region, and the second is to suppress their peoples.

For example, the Bahraini people do not agree with the Bahraini regime's policies when it made concessions to Israel and stabbed the Palestinians in the back.

 Therefore, the Bahraini people cannot hold protests, not because they do not want to support Palestine.

There are 3,500 prisoners of opinion in a country whose indigenous citizens do not exceed half a million. Also, there is more than one force to suppress the people: there are security forces, most of them come from Pakistan and Afghanistan, and even from Yemen and Jordan; most of them have a non-Bahraini origin, as well as the presence of Saddam Hussein's remnants and Sudani forces in the country.

There are the U.S. Fifth Fleet and the British base. The Saudi army also intervened to suppress the people and is still in Bahrain. Nevertheless, we see that the Bahraini people have expressed their opinions in various ways.
 

Q: What is the position of the Bahraini Movement towards the normalization of ties with Israel?

A: The position of the Bahraini Movement comes from the highest religious figures, especially by Sheikh Isa Ahmed Qassem, who, in a statement, said normalization with Israel is against religion and law.

The Palestinian cause is one of the crucial and important issues in the history of the Bahraini movement. It is even enshrined in Bahrain's constitution. 
Al-Khalifa knows that this discourse is present in the conscience of the Bahraini people. All Bahrainis agree that Palestine's cause is indisputable, and therefore normalization of ties with Israel is a high betrayal and a stab in the back. Therefore, many are calling for the removal of this miserable regime in Bahrain.