Iranian envoy not returning to Bahrain to protest gov’t crackdown

TEHRAN (BNO NEWS) — Iran on Sunday announced that it has no plans to send its ambassador back to Bahrain in protest against a government-led crackdown on anti-government protesters earlier this year, state-run media reported on Monday.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, said Ambassador Mahdi Aqajafari will not return to Manama since “there have been no changes in the situation” in Bahrain. Iran recalled its ambassador in March to protest the violent crackdown on anti-government demonstrators.

“The moment the first deaths took place on Bahraini streets we recalled our envoy in protest to the [killing of the] people and to Bahrainis being insulted,” the deputy foreign minister was quoted as saying by Press TV.

In mid-March, Bahraini King Hamad Al Khalifa, with help from neighboring Sunni Gulf states, violently put down the country’s peaceful protest movement and imposed a state of emergency. Small-scale clashes between security forces and demonstrators have become a near nightly event since emergency rule was lifted in June.

Tehran has repeatedly condemned Bahrain and some of its neighbors who sent troops to help Al Khalifa quash the popular protests. Iranians have also staged regular gatherings at the Saudi and Bahraini embassies to protest the violence.

More than 30 people have been killed in Bahrain since anti-government demonstrations erupted in February, inspired by the popular uprisings which toppled the entrenched regimes of Tunisia, Egypt and more recently Libya. The island’s Shia majority is demanding political, social and economic reforms from the Sunni royal family.