Examining 3 reasons for Bahrain’s willingness to restore relations with Iran

Mehr News Agency, international group: Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, King of Bahrain, during the meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, emphasized: “Bahrain confirms the normalization of relations with Iran. “We had problems with this country in the past, but now there are practically no problems and we see no reason to delay the normalization of relations with Iran.” This article briefly answers the question why the king of Bahrain has officially requested the restoration of relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran?

Bahrain is a small country in the Persian Gulf region with an area of ​​only 786 square kilometers and a population of less than There are one million and 500 thousand people, half of which are foreigners. About 60% of the population of Bahrain are Shiites. Bahrain’s geopolitics is important because it neighbors Saudi Arabia and Iran as two important regional powers and is the center of America’s fifth naval fleet, which is the largest American naval base outside of this country. Therefore, the three reasons for the importance of Bahrain are the majority of the Shia population, the neighborhood with Iran and Saudi Arabia, and the hosting of the fifth US naval fleet.

Iran-Bahrain relations; Subject to the politics of the other two powers

Bahrain is the smallest member country of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council and basically its foreign policy is subordinate to the policies of Saudi Arabia and The United States of America. Relations between Bahrain and the Islamic Republic of Iran were severed in 2016. After Saudi Arabia severed relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran in January 2016, Bahrain also announced that it will sever diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran just one day after Riyadh’s decision.

Furthermore, the increase in tension between Iran and Saudi Arabia, as well as between Iran and the United States, has an effect on Tehran-Manama relations. has been negative and has widened the gap between the two countries. One of the reasons why Iran-Bahrain relations are influenced by the policies of other countries regarding Iran is that the volume of business relations between Manama and Tehran is at a small level. According to the researches of the Iran Chamber, Iran’s exports to Bahrain in the years 1396 to 1400 were equivalent to 11.7, 12.1, 9.9, 8.4 and 9.7 million dollars respectively, and this country in 1400 was only 0.02%. of Iran’s exports, and in this regard, it has been ranked 68th among Iran’s trading partners. In the field of imports, this country has taken only 0.002% of Iran’s imports and is ranked 90th.

Why is Bahrain willing to restore relations with Iran

About why Bahrain’s public desire to restore relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran, three factors can be mentioned, which are: :

Reviving relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia

After Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran were restored in March 1401, the restoration of Bahrain’s relations with Iran was also raised. In March 2023, just a few days after the restoration of Riyadh-Tehran relations, Ahmad bin Salman Al-Muslam, the Speaker of the Bahraini Parliament, also met with a parliamentary delegation of the Islamic Republic on the sidelines of the 146th session of the International Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Manama. He had announced the start of negotiations between Tehran and Manama, in order to resume the flight of passenger planes between the two countries. “Barbara Leaf”, the US Assistant Secretary of State for Middle East Affairs, announced the possibility of resuming diplomatic relations between Bahrain and Iran on June 23 in the American Congress.

With the continuation of the process of improving the relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia and the two countries getting closer together, Bahrain’s insistence to revive Relations with Iran increased. In this regard, while Bahrain does not have official diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran, it sent its foreign minister to Tehran to pay tribute to the martyred Iranian president and foreign minister. Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Abdul Latif bin Rashid Al-Ziyani visited Tehran on Thursday in a ceremony to pay tribute to President Seyed Ebrahim Raisi and Martyr Hossein Amirabdollahian, Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Meanwhile, Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, the King of Bahrain, also emphasized the necessity of reviving Manama-Tehran relations in his meeting with Vladimir Putin.

Diplomatic efforts of Seyed Ebrahim Raisi and Hossein Amir Abdullahian

The most important foreign policy strategy of the 13th government headed by Shahid Raisi was the development of relations with neighboring, Islamic and aligned countries. . With the passage of time, this policy was accepted by other countries because it did not remain only at the level of words, but also gained an implementation aspect. 28 trips to 23 countries during the 34 months of Seyed Ebrahim Raisi’s presidency, which were purposeful trips to implement the policy of developing relations, are indicative of this issue. In fact, countries including countries such as Saudi Arabia and Bahrain concluded that the 13th administration has good intentions to improve relations and behaves honestly and even avoids hasty positions. For this reason, tensions in bilateral relations with neighboring countries, including Bahrain, have decreased, and now the king of Bahrain emphasizes that there is no reason to delay the normalization of relations with Iran.

Decreasing American influence in West Asia

The third effective factor in this regard is the decline of American influence in West Asia. With the inauguration of Joe Biden in America, on the one hand, the country’s relations with Saudi Arabia became tense, and on the other hand, Washington focused more on East Asia. At the same time, it seems that America does not want more chaos and insecurity in West Asia and has no objection to improving the relations between the countries of the region, including with the Islamic Republic of Iran. One of the reasons for this issue is that the United States does not have the position it had in the past decades, and its ability to exert pressure on other countries, including West Asian countries, has decreased. Saudi Arabia’s refusal to comply with the US policy regarding the Ukraine war and opposition to increasing its oil production are among the evidences of the decline of US influence in West Asia. Now, Bahrain is trying to restore relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran with more effort.

Result

The King of Bahrain’s emphasis on the necessity of restoring relations with Iran shows above all that the policy of isolation of the Islamic Republic of Iran And creating a gap between Iran and the Arab countries, which was pursued especially by the United States, has failed. The decline of American influence in West Asia also caused Arab countries to have more independence in their foreign policy today. Although Seyed Ebrahim Raisi, the head of the 13th government and Hossein Amirabdollahian, the minister of foreign affairs of this government, are not present at the scene and were martyred, the development of relations with neighboring countries is still pursued by the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, an issue that the supreme leader of the revolution also discussed in the meeting. They emphasized it with the officials of different countries who came to Tehran to pay their respects to the martyrs of service. The Islamic Republic of Iran also welcomes the restoration of relations with Bahrain as a neighboring country and even wants to expand economic relations simultaneously with political relations.

Syed Razi Emadi; Expert on West Asian issues