While the European Union drags its feet on the issue, the Bahraini parliament voted Tuesday to label the Lebanon-based Hizbullah group a terrorist organization.
Hizbullah was accused by Bahrain of seeking to overthrow its government in 2011. In a report submitted to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the ruling Khalifa family maintained Hizbullah trained special agents in both Lebanon and Iran to topple its regime, according to a report published this week in Ya Libnan.
Last November, the official Bahrain News Agency quoted the country’s Information Minister, Samira Ibrahim bin Rajab, as saying a bombing that killed two people in the country bore the hallmarks of Hizbullah. Rajab added that 19 pro-Iran satellite media channels were also inciting their supporters in Bahrain to “subvert the government.”
Earlier this month, Arab interior ministers gathered for a security meeting in Riyadh accused Iran of supplying “logistic help to terrorist operations” in Bahrain and Yemen, AFP reported. In a statement, the ministers “strongly denounced logistic aid supplied by Iran to terrorist operations in Bahrain and Yemen,” and congratulated security services in both countries for “dismantling cells and uncovering dangerous terror plots.”
In February, Sunni-ruled Bahrain, whose population is nevertheless comprised of a Shi’ite majority, accused the Islamic Republic across the Gulf of training, arming and financing a “terrorist cell” which the authorities had arrested, an accusation Tehran denied.
Last week, a member of Hizbullah was convicted in a Cyprus court room on charges of plotting to murder Israeli tourists on the island.
Barely a month ago, Bulgaria’s interior ministry issued a report documenting that two Hizbullah operatives had participated in the attack on an Israeli tour bus at the Black Sea resort town airport in Burgas.
Five Israelis died in the bombing, along with their Bulgarian bus driver, and 32 others were wounded in the attack.