Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Bahrain royal commission

Angry Arab's chief Bahrain correspondent sent me additional comment:
"Continuation:
- no immediate reinstatement of workers and students
- no democratic "transition"
Three interesting points in Bassiounis speech:
- no evidence of iranian involvement
- no evidence that Penninsula shield (I.e. Saudi) committed any offenses
- I believe he said that opposition should have accepted governments offer of dialogue. (I am sick and tired of this narrative. They did have a dialogue with CP)
I did not watch the speech. Everything I wrote to you is based on live tweets I was reading. So I will need to wait for original report (which isn't available yet) to confirm.
I will admit to you: Bassiounis speech was better than I expected since he did admit that most of the violations took place. I see the speech as a win for the royal family (since they were not held accountable) but a lose for many of their supporters who continue to deny that the violations took place.
Oh one funny thing the information affairs authority was tweeting the speech - except that they were tweeting the opposite of what he said in many instances.
Meanwhile in the background - there are demonstrations everywhere in the villages. Security forces responded aggressively as usual. One protestor got killed already.
Also a lot of tire burning by protestors. Situation is definitely not stable. Protests continue. Violations continue."