Although Bahrain is ruled by a Sunni monarchy, the peace treaty with Israel, essentially, makes it the first country with a Shiite majority in the Middle East to establish full diplomatic ties with Israel since the fall of the Iranian Shah during the Islamic Revolution in 1979. In fact, the Shiite majority in the country is significant, meaning a considerable domestic challenge awaits Bahraini King Hamad al-Khalifa.
Crystallizing this further were two hashtags that began trending on Twitter in Bahrain immediately after the normalization deal with Israel was announced – almost completely contrary to what occurred in the United Arab Emirates: #Bahrainis against normalization and #normalization is betrayal.
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The past decade has been exceedingly arduous for the monarchy in Manama. Ever since the Arab Spring in 2011, the monarchy in Manama has grappled vigorously with its status as a minority ruler over the majority. As expected, it was Saudi Arabia, which obviously doesn't want the headache of a Shiite regime on the Saudi peninsula, which came to al-Khalifa's side to help him contend with the anger in the streets.
On the other side of this divide, officials in Tehran hoped the Bahraini street would be able to topple the regime and possibly give Iran its 14 province. To this end, as early as February 2011 the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps tried shipping weapons, bombs, and guns to terrorist cells under its command – an attempt that failed. Ultimately, after all has been said and done, the al-Khalifa dynasty has remained in power to this day.
And yet, the ayatollah regime's efforts to export terror haven't subsided. It has used Lebanon-based Hezbollah, led by Hassan Nasrallah, to spearhead its subversive endeavors as a type of "proxy-by-proxy" inside Bahrain. Hence, in on April 10, 2013, Bahrain became the first Arab country to outlaw Hezbollah.
Later on, a local political organization opposing the monarchy, innocently named the "Coalition Youth of the 14 February Revolution," was dismantled. The organization's supposedly pro-democracy leader, meanwhile, relocated to Beirut, where he receives political instruction from Hezbollah.
Another important political movement, Al-Wefaq, was outlawed in July 2016 and all its assets were confiscated. Al-Wefaq's most prominent figure, spiritual leader Ayatollah Isa Qassim, is viewed as Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's representative in Bahrain. The monarchy in Manama, realizing Qassim was a "ticking time bomb," stripped him of his citizenship and banished him to Iran. None of these actions stopped Nasrallah and his subordinates from using local Shiite extremists to operate terrorist cells inside Bahrain, and even train them in their camps in Lebanon.
On August 6 of this year, Bahrain's Interior Ministry – headed by former armed forces chief Rashid bin Abdullah al-Khalifa, who praised the normalization deal with Israel – announced it had successfully foiled two attempts by Hezbollah to smuggle explosives into the country from Iran. "Those who were arrested confessed that Hezbollah is behind the action," the ministry said in a statement.
Meanwhile, although Hezbollah is the middle-man between IRGC Quds Force commander Esmail Ghaani and his terrorist cells operating inside Bahrain, other organizations, such as the Al-Ashtar Brigades, view themselves as independent from Hezbollah. The organization considers the ayatollah regime in Tehran its patron, and has carried out dozens of terrorist attacks in Bahrain. Its capabilities, however, fall far short of those of Hezbollah. The most lethal attack it perpetrated, in March 2014, killed two local police officers and an officer from the United Arab Emirates.
"Ever since the Islamic Revolution, Iran has attempted to undermine the stability of the regime in Bahrain," Dr. Michael Barak, a senior researcher at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, told Israel Hayom. The Iranians, according to Barak, "wield three spheres of influence in Bahrain. The first is 'soft power' – support for Shiite charity organizations inside Bahrain. The second is support for Shiite opposition movements, and the third is strengthening terror organizations based on the Hezbollah model."
Barak added: "The Iranians very much want to topple the regime in Bahrain, in order to remove the large American force stationed there. The conflict, in this case, is political rather than religious."
Bahrain, in the meantime, also encourages other countries across the globe to designate Hezbollah a terrorist organization. On February 25, 2019, the foreign ministry in Manama hailed Great Britain for doing so, calling it "an important step in the fight against regional and international terror." On July 19, 2019, the Bahraini Ministry of Foreign Affairs praised Argentina for making a similar decision, saying: "This is a new step, where the international community is moving toward recognizing the dangers posed by this terrorist organization."
Asked whether Israelis in Bahrain will become targets of Iranian terror, Dr. Barak said: "The Iranians use the maritime space to insert their agents into Bahrain to set up terror cells. I fear that Israelis in Bahrain could become an Iranian target if and when [the Iranians] feel the time is right for them. With that, Bahrain and Israel are implementing all the security precautions necessary to contend with any such terrorist threat and I'm certain the American's are involved in the matter."
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