Iran: Saudi invasion threatening

Iran's Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/170255.html

Iran's defense minister warns that Saudi Arabia's invasion of Bahrain will heighten tensions and deteriorate stability and security in the entire region.

“Should such miscalculated and legally-unjustified actions become a norm, the region would turn into a center for incendiarism, hostility and conflict,” said Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi.

Led by the Riyadh regime, Bahrain's fellow members of the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council -- Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar -- have dispatched armed forces to the Persian Gulf island to assist Manama in its crackdown on nationwide protests against the Sunni-led monarchy's suppression of the majority Shia population.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has also blasted the incursion as an effort to suppress the Bahraini citizens.

“This military invasion was a foul and doomed experience,” he said on Wednesday.

Demonstrators in Bahrain have been demanding the ouster of King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa as well as constitutional reforms, with hundreds camping out peacefully in the capital's Pearl Square since February 14th.

The square, which has turned into the epicenter for the rallies, is now known to many as 'the Martyrs Roundabout,' in memory of several protesters that died during Manama-ordered suppression of the popular uprising.

Hundreds of people have also been wounded in violent crackdown on anti-government movements by the security forces. More than 1,000 people have been reported hospitalized mostly for inhaling tear gas.

Meanwhile, Bahrain's opposition groups have described the invasion of the country by the Persian Gulf Arab nations as an 'undeclared war' on the Bahraini people.

Iranian officials and lawmakers have also reacted strongly to the recent invasion of Bahrain by forces from neighboring Persian Gulf states led by Saudi Arabia. Iranian lawmaker Hossein Naghavi has emphasized that Saudi Arabia has waged a war on Bahrain against all international regulations without any reaction by the United Nations.

He warned Riyadh that Tehran would exhaust everything within its means to thwart the ongoing violence against the Bahraini populace.

Iran's president held the United States responsible for the military effort. “Regional nations will hold the US government liable for such an atrocious behavior,” he said.

The US has refused to call the deployment of foreign troops in Bahrain as an invasion. "This is not an invasion of a country," White House spokesman, Jay Carney asserted, AFP reported on Monday.

The US spokesman also recently defended Washington's late response to the bloody crackdown on anti-government protesters and revolutionary forces in Libya.

Reactions in Tehran comes as Iranian university students issued a statement announcing their readiness to be dispatched to the Persian Gulf island to counter what they have referred to as 'crimes committed by Saudi and Bahraini rulers.'