Around fifteen days ago, during the celebrations of the Islamic revolution commemoration, Nategh Nuri, an ancient president of the Parliament but also an unfortunate candidate against Khatami in 1997, specified while he was mentioning the links between Iran and Bahrein that this country had been under Iranian influence several times in the past. Nuri stated that Bahrein used to be the fourteenth province of Iran and even disposed of a deputy at the Iranian Parliament. This is not exactly the truth.

Actually this territory was part of Iran before the Arab invasion and then under the Sefevid dynasty until 1783. Following this date, Bahrein was occupied by British such as many Iranian islands of the Persian Gulf. Since then, the Kajar and the Pahlavi dynasties claimed endlessly such territories. In 1968, further to an agreement with the Great Britain, Iran recovered its rights on some of the islands that are located at the entry of the Hormuz Strait but not on Bahrein. The British intended to create a larger version of the United Arab Emirates including all the former protectorates and among them Bahrein who was then part of Iran. As he was hostile to a concealed British presence in this strategic region, the Shah decided to retaliate.

In 1969, the Shah offered to hold a referendum so the Bahreinis can give an opinion regarding their future : be a part of Iran or become independent. The project filled the Bahreinis with enthusiasm and flattered their Arab identity. London’s silence ! The Shah reiterated his offer in 1970 and suggested that the UNO would supervise the referendum. On the 9 March 1970, the UNO adopted this proposal and ten days later the British had to accept this referendum that was going counter to their project. In April, a UNO delegation went to Bahrein in order to collect the opinion of the tribe representatives. By relying on the results of this survey, the Security Council adopted on the 30 April a resolution in favor of the separation of Bahrein and Iran. The Iranian Parliament immediately adopted a bill to acknowledge that decision. The King of Bahrein visited the Shah of Iran in December 1970 in order to sign the protocols regarding borders and oil working cooperation. Those protocols were completed in June 1971 in Manama by the Foreign Affairs Ministers of both countries. On the 14 August, Bahrein proclaimed its independence and an hour later, Iran acknowledged its existence. This is how the Shah managed to contain the British projects into the Persian Gulf and made Iran the raising power of this strategic region, the gendarme of the Persian Gulf.

This ambitious agreement avoided us as well a conflict with the whole of Arab States. Nevertheless it used to be contested by a small Iranian political group showing Mossadegh tendency. It participated then to the Islamic revolution with other supporters of Mossadegh. Such protest always reappears through the slogans of this party and the ones of the regime, mostly to call into question the patriotism of the Shah whose popularity is rising since several years.

The recent declaration of Nuri was a new attempt to harm the Shah in order to justify the Islamic revolution. Nuri’s sentiments were only meant for a national and ideological use. However they were finally exploited by the American adversaries of the regime who widely spread them so to bring about a crisis with the Arabs. Teheran came very close to the breach of the only one gas contract it signed recently.

After it ignored this meaningless crisis, Teheran poured out apologies via its ambassador in Manama and then via the author of the speech. At last it dispatched its Minister of the Interior, the militiaman Mahsuli, to Manama for a one day visit. Officially it was to assist in a security meeting for the Persian Gulf. On the spot, the envoy of Teheran quietly listened to the critics of the representatives of the Cooperation Council of the Gulf. But he met in private the King Hamad Ben Issa Khalifa in order to give him a friendship message from Ahmadinejad and an official invitation to visit Iran. The message asserted as well that the Islamic Republic of Iran wouldn’t let anybody tarnish the relations within both countries. The King of Bahrein, Hamad Ben Issa Khalifa, has been sensitive to such gesture and announced his attachment to maintain good relations.

As a conclusion, Mahsuli declared that this crisis, that was strictly speaking not a real one, was over. If it’s right that this crisis lacked of content, it remains true that Teheran offered its apologies which is not in its habits ! The cases must be very empty !

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The french version of this article :
 Iran-Bahreïn : Slogans maladroits et excuses intéressées
 (25 FÉVRIER 2009)