Iran's territorial ambitions in Bahrain

Jerusalem Post:

Over a hundred demonstrators gathered outside the Iranian Embassy in Bahrain Friday to protest a recent editorial in a conservative Teheran newspaper arguing that Bahrain is part of Iran.

Waving Bahraini flags, the mostly Sunni protesters called for the expulsion of the Iranian ambassador and the closure of the embassy, as police prevented them from reaching the building.

The controversy started with an editorial written Monday by Hossein Shariatmadari, the editor of the hard-line Kayhan newspaper and a close aid to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Shariatmadari wrote that Bahrain was an Iranian province whose people wanted to return to the motherland.

Shi'ite Iran laid claim to Bahrain, a British protectorate at the time, and other Persian Gulf islands in 1970. But the country voted instead for independence from both Britain and Iran, which it achieved in 1971.

In his editorial, Shariatmadari also criticized Bahrain for supporting a claim by the United Arab Emirates on three Persian Gulf islands Iran considers an integral part of its territory.

Bahrain's ruling family is Sunni Muslim, but about 60 percent of the country's 725,000 citizens are Shi'ite. Roughly 25 percent of them originally hail from Iran.

Bahraini Prime Minister Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa has described Shariatmadari's remarks as "irresponsible talk," the country's official news agency BNA reported on its Web site Friday.

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I dislike Hitler comparisons most of the time since they are subject to a great deal of abuse, but this sounds very much like his remarks in making Germany's claims for Czechoslovakia. The Iranian embassy says the paper does not speak for the government.