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What's fuelling the demand for tear gas?Bahrain sits between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Saudi Arabia is a Western ally, in league with the militant Sunni extremists fuelling the rebels in Syria while Iran is an ideological enemy of the West, Shia theocratic state, Assad ally, and regional rival of Saudi Arabia. While the US was still flirting with the idea of bombing Syria for their alleged use of chemical weapons, Washington presented a plan to resolve the Bahraini conflict. The hope was that Iran would be grateful for the US resolving a civil war raging on its doorstep and would neutralize its involvement with the Assad regime, forgiving America for dropping peace bombs all over the country.While Iran never explicitly agreed to withdraw its support for Assad, it publicly approved of the US resolution in Bahrain. Things were beginning to look up for the Bahraini people, but now that Syria isn't going to be the recipient of tons US ordinance, the State Department and Pentagon no longer feel the need to placate Iran by solving the problems in Bahrain.The fading hopes of a compromise prompted the hardliners in the Bahraini regime, backed by their Saudi patrons, to renew their crackdown on the dissidents. Authorities armed themselves with enough tear gas to disperse protesters for the next decade or so, arrested the deputy head of the opposition party, Khalil al-Marzooq, and jailed dozens for allegedly being part of the February 14 movement, an Anonymous-like youth coalition that have been blamed for encouraging violent street protests.
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