Tiny Bahrain Firmly in Tehran's Orbit

February 12, 2007 Globe and Mail Mark Mackinnon

AL-DAIH, BAHRAIN -- They're unarmed, but march like an army though the streets of this tiny country -- tens of thousands of black-clad men beating their chests in unison to a slow, mournful rhythm. With each violent thump of their fists, they recall the first in a long line of grievances Shia Muslims hold against their Sunni brethren. Oblivious to the drizzling rain, an estimated 250,000 marchers, a third of all the people who live on this Persian Gulf island, hit themselves and cry the name of Imam Hussein, the Shia leader who fell under Sunni swords in the year 680. In Bahrain, the annual Ashura festival of mourning is part religious ceremony, part demonstration of political power. With sectarian tensions high across the region, it's a reminder to Bahrain's elites that, although the Shiites are poor and disenfranchised, they dwarf the ruling Sunnis in number, and hold an angry grudge. Situated across the Persian Gulf from Iran, Bahrain's Sunni rulers are as sensitive as anyone in the region to the apparent extraterritorial aspirations of Iran's ayatollahs and their influence on the kingdom's Shia majority. The precursors of today's royal family invaded from neighbouring Qatar in 1780 and drove out the Persians. But Iran didn't extinguish its claim to the island until 1970, and today, the Bahraini government still perceives an existential threat emanating from Tehran. Iran is playing in many Middle East backyards, most notably in Iraq (through the various Shia political parties and militias that take their orders from Tehran), Lebanon (through the Iranian-funded Hezbollah movement) and the Palestinian territories (through Hamas, a Sunni group that turned to Iran for help when faced by a crippling Western boycott). But it's tiny Bahrain where Iran arguably wields the most influence, and where Tehran might first try to demonstrate its new clout if a showdown with the United States and its Arab allies becomes inevitable
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