June 22, The Iran Project - Bahrain’s Bahrain's Al Khalifah regime on Monday stripped the country’s leading Shia cleric Sheikh Isa Qassim of his citizenship in a move that brought thousands of protesters into the streets and threatened to more ignite sectarian tensions across the region.

The latest evidences and facts indicate that Saudi Arabia is behind this hideous act in the tiny island nation off the coast of the Arabian Peninsula has been in turmoil since a 2011 uprising backed by majority Shia demanding greater rights from the Sunni-led monarchy.

Al Khalifah's move is widely condemned by several Muslims clerics and officials from home and abroad, Bahrain's February 14th movement in particular.
At present, several Bahraini religious and political figures and officials of different countries consider Riyadh as a main culprit behind the move.

It is crystal clear that the Saudi regime is playing a pivotal role in oppressing the innocent Shias in Bahrain during recent years, consequently Riyadh's role in targeting a Shia cleric in Bahrain does not seem so unlikely and far-fetched.

The experience also has shown that Al Khalifah regime lacks enough courage to stand alone against a prominent cleric like Sheikh Isa Qassim and the regime is fully endorsed by Saudi Arabia.

It seems that Saudi Arabia, that has long been under fire at the international level for its grim human rights record, is now sharing its experiences with Bahrain after executing the prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, and is targeting the spiritual father of Bahrain revolution by gradually omitting him from political scene by means of incarceration or exile.

Riyadh's execution of Sheikh Nimr has drawn angry reactions from Muslim bodies worldwide.

Without doubt, these tyrannical measures would pave the ground for Saudi Arabia's further presence in Bahrain to repress the innocent Bahraini people more than ever.