“In a number of ways, Bahrain today is more stable than it was a year ago,” said Michael H. Posner, assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor.
However, he added, the country is still a “deeply divided nation struggling to regain its equilibrium.”
Tom Malinowski, director of the Washington office of Human Rights Watch, said much of the tension in Bahrain comes from its position “right on the fault line between the Sunni and Shiite Muslim worlds.”
The Sunni minority, aligned with Saudi Arabia, is fearful that the rival Shiite majority has links to Iran.
Mr. Malinowski said the official media have “convinced many Sunni supporters of the monarchy that opposition calls for democracy are an Iranian plot to impose a Shiite theocracy on Bahrain.”
• Call Embassy Row at 202/636-3297 or email jmorrison@washingtontimes.com. The column is published on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
© Copyright 2013 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.
James Morrison joined the The Washington Times in 1983 as a local reporter covering Alexandria, Va. A year later, he was assigned to open a Times bureau in Canada. From 1987 to 1989, Mr. Morrison was The Washington Times reporter in London, covering Britain, Western Europe and NATO issues. After returning to Washington, he served as an assistant foreign editor ...
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