Saudi Arabia occupying two Bahraini islands, oilfield

Al-Sharq newspaper said in an article entitled "Bahrain is a Saudi protectorate" that Riyadh "insisted on defining the border with Bahrain according to its interests, taking advantage of the weakness of the regime in Manama as a result of the ongoing political unrest in that country. In the 1980s Riyadh put its hand on two islands, although the citizens of Bahrain were freely visiting the islands, but they cannot now travel to the two islands under Saudi hegemony. "

"Saudi Arabia refuses to put the oil field "Abu Safa" under the management of Bahrain, although most of it falls within the territorial waters of Bahrain, while insisting on retaining through Aramco the right to produce and export oil from that field," the newspaper added.

The field produces 320.000 barrels a day. Saudi Arabia grants Bahrain the value of half of the production.

Al-Sharq also noted that Bahrain's position towards Qatar in the ongoing Persian Gulf crisis was motivated by Saudi domination of Manama’s decision making organs.

Since 5 June, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE and Egypt cut diplomatic and transport ties with Qatar, which they accuse of supporting what they call extremist groups, including Palestinian Hamas resistance movement and the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as having close ties with neighboring Iran, Saudi Arabia’s main rival the west Asia.

Qatar has defended itself against the accusation saying the groups are not extremist, while insisting on having good ties with Iran.

Meanwhile, thousands of anti-regime protesters have held numerous demonstrations in Bahrain on an almost daily basis ever since a popular uprising began in the kingdom in early February 2011. They are demanding that the Al Khalifah dynasty relinquish power and a just system representing all Bahrainis be established.

The Manama regime has spared no effort to clamp down on dissent and rights activists. On March 14, 2011, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were deployed to Bahrain to assist Manama in its crackdown. The Al Khalifah is basically a puppet of the Saudi regime and it uses the same tactics employed by Saudi Arabia in order to quell pro-democracy demonstrations in Bahrain.