What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.
Press TV: These demonstrations have been ongoing as we said there since 2011 but it looks like to no avail as of yet. What have the demonstrators achieved?
Wakim: I believe so far the demonstrators did not achieve tangible results because the case of Bahrain got entangled with the regional tension, especially the competition over influence between Saudi Arabia, Turkey on one hand …
Press TV: Mr. Wakim, you were speaking to us about why we have not seen, in your words, any tangible results from these demonstrations in Bahrain. Go ahead.
Wakim: Well the demonstrations in Bahrain which the Bahrainis have real claim for justice and for human rights especially that they are deprived of all political rights, freedom of expression and the right to share wealth with the ruling family.
However, due to the importance of Bahrain for Saudi Arabia for what the Saudis consider as the security of their eastern provinces, that is why they thought that the success of the Bahraini uprising might endanger stability in the eastern regions of Saudi Arabia which are rife for rebellion because of the discrimination they live in.
And at the same time the Saudis who consider themselves as part of a competition over influence with Iran in the region, they think that the uprising in Bahrain is supported by Iran and it is part of a plot, Iranian plot to destabilize the [P]GCC countries and that is why the Saudis have laid support to the Al Khalifa regime in Bahrain and supplied them with economic assistance and support in order for the country to keep running, for the Al Khalifa to keep running the country and that is why we saw that there were no tangible results after three years.
I believe that the Bahraini uprising should be part of a wider movement and should be given support by NGOs, by civil movements in the Arab world and all over the world for it to be able to succeed.
Press TV: And we are speaking a lot with Bahraini activists now and then and a lot of them tell us that what the demonstration we can say has achieved is it has on the one side exposed the true nature of the Bahraini Al Khalifa dynasty and also they say has exposed the hypocrisy of those supporting the Bahraini regime.
Do you see that as an important achievement for the demonstrations and do you think as long as these protests continue, the Al Khalifa regime will have to at one point in time make a decision about them or make a move about them?
Wakim: I believe that the Bahraini protests have achieved a major moral victory over the Al Khalifa regime by delegitimizing this regime and exposing it in face of the international community.
But we need not to forget also that the Al Khalifa get support from the Americans who have a base in Bahrain and they are very keen on having Al Khalifa stay in power because Bahrain is considered as an integral part for the American strategy to defend or thwart the attempts of Iran to have access to the Indian Ocean. That is why the Americans have bases in Bahrain, Qatar, even in parts of Kuwait and in Oman.
Of course the Bahraini demonstrators have been able to expose the regime and eventually I believe that the regime should hold talks with the Bahraini protesters. However, I believe that it will be a long way ahead of us.
