Manama: Bahrain's King Hamad Bin Eisa Al Khalifa dismissed the country's opposition movement as disunited and said the threat of Iran had compelled him to call in foreign troops to stop last year's protests.
"In a sense there is no ‘opposition' in Bahrain, as the phrase implies one unified block with the same views," the king said in extracts from an interview with Germany's Der Spiegel.
"Such a phrase is not in our constitution, unlike say the United Kingdom. We only have people with different views and that's okay," he said in the article to be published today.
Bahrainis took to the streets last February, and the government imposed martial law. Demonstrations began again after the emergency law was lifted in June.
Opposition parties are demanding Bahrain's elected parliament to have the power to form governments. They complain of political and economic marginalisation. The government denies this and says it is open to reforms.
The king said the protesters' refrain "Down with Hamad", sounded by trumpets and car horns and chanted at rallies, was simply a case of bad manners and no reason to imprison people.
Case of bad manners
"It's just a case of manners. But when they shout ‘Down with the king and up with Khamenei' that's a problem for national unity," he said. King Hamad said he brought in emergency law to protect women and expatriates, some of whom were attacked.
"Also our women were very scared and it is the duty of a gentleman to protect women, so I had to protect them," he said. The king said he had called in Gulf Cooperation Council military help, mainly in the form of Saudi troops, to protect Bahrain's "strategic installations... in case Iran would be more aggressive".
American activists
Bahrain expelled two American rights activists on Saturday after police used tear gas and stun grenades to break up a protest that tried to march towards the roundabout at the centre of a failed anti-government uprising last year.
The activists had come as part of a group called Witness Bahrain, which says it wants to observe events on the eve of the February 14 anniversary of the uprising.
"Huwaida Arraf and Radhika Sainath arrived in Bahrain in the last few days and obtained tourist visas upon arrival at the airport," a statement from the government's Information Affairs Authority said.
"However, once in Bahrain, they declared their intentions to join demonstrations in order to report on them. Arraf and Sainath were picked up at an illegal demonstration in Manama this afternoon."
It said they had already been deported but associates said they had not yet left the country.
A statement by Witness Bahrain said the women, human rights lawyers, were taking part in a peaceful demonstration.
