Dr Cavell: “GCC defense shield is defense against people and against growing cries for democracy”
Hagel tried to ‘placate’ Bahrain regime
14 December, 2013 – PressTV
American author Colin Cavell says the recent visit of US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to Bahrain was an attempt to appease the dictatorial regime of Bahrain.
“The recent visit of US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel to Bahrain for the annual Manama dialogue is the US’s attempt to placate the dictatorial regime, the Khalifa regime of Bahrain which is attempting to indicate that it has some sort of intellectual vigor by saying it can contemplate international relations in a manner that is acceptable to other countries,” Cavell told Press TV in a phone interview on Thursday.
“But of course, all the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council states are monarchial dictatorships and the [P]GCC defense shield is mainly a defense against the people, is the defense against growing cries for democracy,” he added.
Hagel traveled to Bahrain last week and became the first US Cabinet member to visit the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom since anti-regime demonstrations started there in February 2011.
Addressing the Manama Dialogue conference in Bahrain over last weekend, Hagel said: “I am under no illusions, like all of you, about the daily threats facing this region, or the current anxieties that I know exist here in the [Persian] Gulf.”
Cavell went on to say that now “with the United States and its recent deal with Iran,” Saudi Arabia and other Arab states in the Persian Gulf region are “very worried that the US may abandon them.”
“And of course, as the people continue to solidify and continue their demonstrations on a daily basis and their opposition to the regime [continues], they will eventually overthrow these corrupt monarchical dictators,” he added.
“The irony of the situation is that the United States claims to be supporting democracy, and yet the real [supporters of] democracy are in the streets of Bahrain,” he pointed out.
Bahrainis have been staging demonstrations since mid-February 2011, calling for political reforms and a constitutional monarchy, a demand that later turned into an outright call for the ouster of the ruling Al Khalifa family following its brutal crackdown on popular protests. …source
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