Al Khalifah’s demise looming on the horizon: Iran speaker

Iran’s Parliament (Majlis) speaker says the recent intensification of a crackdown on Shia Muslims in Bahrain signals the looming demise of the Al Khalifah regime.

Ali Larijani on Tuesday repudiated the Bahraini regime's decision to strip prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Isa Qassim of his citizenship as “immature” and “adventurist,” which reflected the political crisis in the tiny Persian Gulf island. 

“These measures are a sign that a regime that threatens its prominent figures with revoking their citizenship is drawing its last breaths,” the speaker told a parliament session.

The decision is only the latest in a string of “inhumane” measures that include repressing political dissent, manipulating Shia religious funds, and killing Bahraini civilians, Larijani added.

Meanwhile, 251 Iranian lawmakers issued a statement, condemning the decision as well as the intentional community's silence toward it.

"What does this deadly silence in the face of flagrant violation of international law by the ruling reactionary regime in Bahrain mean?" they said in a statement. 

"Have the rulers of this Islamic state thought about the dangerous and unpredictable consequences of this unwise move?" they added.

Manama stripped Sheikh Qassim of his citizenship on Monday, accusing him of sowing "sectarianism and violence." 

The decision has raised fears of a further showdown between protesters and security forces in the kingdom which is already the scene of regular protests. 

The move, Larijani said, dashes all hopes for a political solution to the crisis in Bahrain and “encourages the repressed people who have been deprived of their basic rights into revolt.”

He said the only demand sought by the disenfranchised Bahrainis was equal suffrage. “Is this so excessive an expectation that has prompted the regime instead to stage a campaign of death and destruction against the people for years?”

Home to the US Navy's Fifth Fleet, Bahrain has been in turmoil since a 2011 uprising backed by majority Shias demanding greater civil and political rights from the Saudi-backed monarchy.

On Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the UN human rights office said the decision to revoke Sheikh Qassimi is "clearly unjustified" under international law.

"Given that due process was not followed, it cannot be justified," Ravina Shamdasani told a UN briefing in Geneva. "It is clearly unjustified."

A Bahraini rights group also urged the authorities to stop revoking citizenships “to punish political dissent.”

The Bahrain Center for Human Rrights said in a statement that the decision against the top Shia cleric "is yet another blow to freedom of speech and expression in Bahrain” and is “part of an escalating crackdown on freedoms and rights.”

It urged the government to “immediately and unconditionally reinstate the citizenship of Qassim and all those affected,” saying that it had documented evidence of at least 261 cases since 2012.

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