Iran and Radical Islamism biggest threats

Manama : Iran and radical Islamists have grown strong in the region during the last three decades, a senior diplomat and political expert stated yesterday.

This came during the opening of the 13th edition of the Regional Security Summit Bahrain “Manama Dialogue 2017”.

The two-day event is annually organised here by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) for the past 12 years, under the patronage of the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa.

During his keynote speech at the opening of the event, IISS Corresponding Executive Director Sir John Jenkins confirmed that “the sustained recovery and rise of Iran and emergence of radical Islamist ideology are the most significant developments in the region in the past 30 years”.

Jenkins, who has been in the Middle East and North Africa Region for 35 years, served as the British Ambassador in Saudi Arabia, Israel, Syria, Iraq and Libya.

The expert reviewed with the audience the main highlights and changes in the political, military and economic arenas in the region during his years of service.

He said: “Iran is a major power in this region with a long remarkable and highly distinctive history and culture” and highlighted Iranian attempts to establish itself on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea since long years.

Jenkins highlighted in his speech the rise of the extremist Islamists in the region and how the “exclusive intolerant ideologies seek to take the place of communal, inclusive and tolerant experience that is the overwhelming daily practice of the lived faith of Islam”. “This is the real blasphemy,” he commented.

“Both Iran and radical Islamists have fed on discontent in this region that emerged in the Middle East since 1920s,” Jenkins said, while also mentioning other factors that empowered the two in the region such as the loss of Palestine, failure in many parts of the region to address the challenges and “serious mistakes by outside actors” such as the overthrow of the regime in Iraq in 2003 with no adequate long-term plan to provide security and construction of a better state, and similarly in Libya.   

Jenkins commented, “Western failures in the region created vacuums Islamists rush in.”

He referred to the Iranian attempts to destabilise the region, including Bahrain and other countries.

“We need to constrain more effectively Iran’s ability to cause disruptions in the region including here in Bahrain when they have the chance. This includes also containing the ability of Iran’s subalterns, such as Hezbollah, to do the same,” he added.