British royal trip comes as Bahrain unrest far from over
DIRAZ, Bahrain — In the small town of Diraz, just a few miles from where Prince Charles met with Bahrain’s royals, there is graffiti demanding the death of the Gulf island’s monarch, armoured vehicles with chicken wire on their windows and a tense calm that could be shattered at any time.
The police have laid siege to the town for months, a sign of the lingering standoff between Bahrain’s Shiite majority and its Sunni monarchy more than five years after Arab Spring protests were crushed. The ongoing crackdown has seen some activists imprisoned, others exiled, and a major Shiite opposition group dismantled.
But there was no sign of the unrest as Prince Charles and his wife Camilla took in the sights as part of a three-nation tour of the Gulf. The Prince of Wales inaugurated a new naval base on Thursday, the first permanent British military presence since its withdrawal from Bahrain in 1971.
The royal visit and the military base suggest Britain, which has long had influence with Bahrain’s own monarchy, may not be pressing it on human rights. Tensions continue to grow amid the crackdown, with some worried a larger crisis could loom in Bahrain, which is home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet.