{"id":9209,"date":"2012-04-27T07:39:25","date_gmt":"2012-04-27T14:39:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=9209"},"modified":"2012-04-27T07:39:25","modified_gmt":"2012-04-27T14:39:25","slug":"bahrain-moi-clears-up-confusion-security-forces-only-intervene-when-protesters-get-violent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=9209","title":{"rendered":"Bahrain MOI clears up confusion, &#8220;security forces&#8221; only intervene when protesters get violent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Bahrain Insists it Allows Peaceful Protests<\/strong><br \/>\nby Naharnet Newsdesk<\/p>\n<p>Bahrain&#8217;s foreign ministry has insisted it respects the right to hold peaceful protests in the Gulf state and that its security forces only intervene when demonstrations turn violent.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The kingdom of Bahrain authorizes the peaceful expression of opinion within the constitution and the law,&#8221; it said in a statement late Thursday in response to U.S. State Department concerns.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The security forces exercise maximum restraint even though they are regularly the target of acts of violence,&#8221; the ministry said. &#8220;But these forces reserve the right to take necessary measures in the face of any escalation in violence.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The State Department on Wednesday urged Bahrain to exercise restraint and allow peaceful protests, condemning a new outbreak of unrest in the U.S.-allied Sunni Muslim-led kingdom.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are deeply concerned about the increase in violence in Bahrain,&#8221; State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We condemn the use of violence in all its forms &#8212; whether against peaceful demonstrators or police and government institutions &#8212; and urge all parties to reject such actions,&#8221; Nuland said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We call on the government of Bahrain to permit peaceful protest and to exercise maximum restraint in maintaining order, just as we call on all those demonstrating to do so peacefully,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>The Gulf state&#8217;s Shiite majority holds regular protests against their alleged marginalization and disenfranchisement by the Sunni regime. A crackdown on protests last year left 35 dead, according to an independent probe.<\/p>\n<div class=\"igit_tsb_button\" style=\"float: left; margin-right: 10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.crookedbough.com%2F%3Fp%3D9209&amp;text=Bahrain+MOI+clears+up+confusion%2C+%22security+forces%22+only+intervene+when+protesters+get+violent&amp;count=horizontal&amp;via=\" style=\"\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bahrain Insists it Allows Peaceful Protests by Naharnet Newsdesk Bahrain&#8217;s foreign ministry has insisted it respects the right to hold peaceful protests in the Gulf state and that its security forces only intervene when demonstrations turn violent. &#8220;The kingdom of Bahrain authorizes the peaceful expression of opinion within the constitution and the law,&#8221; it said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=9209#more-'\" class=\"more-link\">more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[778],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9209"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9209"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9210,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9209\/revisions\/9210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}