•  washington
• Thursday, March 31, 2011
• Inter Press Service

While a NATO-led coalition continues to enforce a no-fly zone in a Libya that seems to be on the brink of catastrophe, the Barack Obama administration has yet to formulate a set of guiding principles in dealing with ongoing protests throughout the region in countries like Bahrain.

In a nationally televised defence of his administration's Libya policy on Monday, President Obama stood by many of the promises made in his 2009 Cairo speech — a pledge to support those in the Arab world who seek more pluralistic, democratic forms of government.

'I believe that this movement of change cannot be turned back, and that we must stand alongside those who believe in the same core principles that have guided us through many storms: our opposition to violence directed at one's own people; our support for a set of universal rights, including the freedom for people to express themselves and choose their leaders; our support for governments that are ultimately responsive to the aspirations of the people,' he said.

Despite this rhetoric, some analysts see Obama's approach to the uprisings in the region not as conforming to a broad strategic vision, but as hinging on concessions to regional partners' 'red lines' for reforms — as in Bahrain, where U.S. ally Saudi Arabia fears that a more politically inclusive regime will tempt Iran to expand its sphere of influence.

In the case of Bahrain, the Obama administration has taken a decidedly different approach than in Libya or even Egypt. Despite the Bahraini government's crackdown on civilians and popular calls for political reform, including representative governance, the U.S. has acceded to the Khalifa regime's minimal concessions and taken an ambiguous position on the presence of Saudi troops in the country, which critics say has only exacerbated sectarian tensions.

From the outset, demonstrations in Sunni-governed, majority- Shia Bahrain were avowedly non-sectarian in character, but the narrative shifted away from the domestic political sphere and became one of sectarian conflict when Saudi troops, the majority of whom are Sunni, crossed the causeway on Mar. 14 with a mandate from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) — ostensibly to protect the regime's infrastructure, but in what came across as a reinforcement of the al-Khalifa monarchic rule.

As a result of the Saudi response to escalating tensions in Bahrain, and Washington's indecisiveness on the matter, Bahrainis' popular perceptions of U.S. policy regarding the uprisings in their country may be souring.

'Bahrain never had a sectarian problem, Sunni and Shia having been living beside each other for years,' Husain Abdulla, director of Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain, told IPS. 'I'm very concerned that feelings of anti-Americanism might rise in Bahrain,' he added. '[The Bahraini people had] looked on the U.S. as someone who always applied minor pressure on the government.'

Now, as Bahraini citizens watch images of U.S. and NATO aircraft patrolling the skies from Benghazi to Tripoli with a mandate to protect the Libyan people, they see potentially hostile GCC troops in their streets, seemingly with Western blessing, Abdulla said.

© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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