Press TV has interviewed Jalal Fairooz, a former Bahraini MP in London, to discuss Al Khalifah regime’s atrocities in Bahrain.
The following is a rough transcription of the interview.
Press TV: Just over the past few days we have seen the Al Khalifah regime handing down death sentences and life imprisonment to a number of activists and opponents to the Al Khalifah monarchy. How far the Al Khalifah is willing to go to quell the uprising in Bahrain?
Fairooz: Well the matter of fact is that the regime has not been able to calm down the uprising or to stop it with even the hard hitting and crashing of this movement. Now the regime feels [a] little bit more supported by the external forces especially after John Kerry’s visit to Manama and President Obama’s visit to Riyadh, they feel that there will be getaway of whatever atrocities they will commit.
That is why they are trying to hit harder on the movement seeking to stop it but of course over the past five years they have been trying with that but they could not. Actually in the past week, there has been more escalation and demonstrations and protests along Bahrain. We have seen also on the international level there [have] been lots of condemnations. One of them came from the close ally of Bahrain and the supporter of Bahrain which is the British government when the minister of foreign affairs Alawi said that the British consider Bahrain as top concern in regard [to] human rights.
Also last week we have seen the most prominent status definer of freedom which is International Freedom House considered Bahrain as one of the top worst countries of freedom in the world. So the situation is not turning for the benefit of the Al Khalifah’s but you could see all the atrocities are not stopping people. You could see the figures who have been oppressedly charged and detained like Sheikh Mohammed Ali Mahfouz, Sayed al-Alawi and others, they are now after five years of jail they are out and they are demanding the same things which they have demanded five years ago.
Press TV: At the end of the day the protesters in Bahrain are calling for more political flexibility and democracy. Why are these calls being ignored by countries like the United States and Britain?
Fairooz: Actually it is really an embarrassing question for the United Kingdom. The problem is that the United Kingdom and the United States are considering these countries as a need for their own economy because on one hand they get cheap oil from them, on the other hand they get them to buy billions of dollars of weapon and they are also establishing whatever these countries want and keeping the so-called security of the Zionist regime of Israel and that is why they are keeping mum.
One of the top advisors in international affairs, she is the deputy head of the Royal Institute here in London …, just two weeks ago said that it is very frustrating that UK keeps mum [on] all the atrocities and human rights in Bahrain and in the [Persian] Gulf states and that is just because it just wants to keep its very narrow-banded interest on the base of just putting its head down on the ethics and all the values of the United Kingdom.
That is why you see that they just want their very direct interests and not care about other people whether they die or whatever, they are ready to keep mum [on] all the bloodshed which is going on Yemen, in Bahrain, in Syria just for their own sake.
