The Iranian response to KSA & UAE intervention in Bahrain 17, March 2011
Posted by thegulfblog.com in Bahrain, Iran, Saudi Arabia.Tags: Iran, Iran Saudi, Iran's reaction to Bahrain, Pearl roundabout, Saudi Arabia, Saudi Bahrain, Saudi invade Bahrain, Saudi troops in Bahrain, Saudi troops UAE Police Bahrain
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Iran to respond to regional invaders
…was the title of an article on Iran’s Press TV.
The first line of the article is a quote from Hossein Naqavi, a member of Iran’s Majlis Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy:
The Saudi’s should know for a fact that Tehran will use all the power and potentials at its disposal to halt the oppression of the people of Bahrain.
Does any of this really need much analysis?
The only caveat to this that I’d make is that Iran is usually 95% bluster and barking (“all trousers” as we say) and 5% bite. These bellicose statements were guaranteed to come from Tehran. Actually how much truth there is to them is most certainly a different question.
Without wishing to state the obvious, the longer Saudi troops are in Bahrain, the greater the risk of Iran’s meddling. Not only will the opportunity of funding some group to take pot-shots at Saudi troops grow exponentially by the day, but Iran just sitting back as its local hegemonic rival stamps its authority on a patch of the Gulf to which Iran feels…umm…attached, would be seen as a sign of Iranian weakness and thus unacceptable.
Watch this space for the first signs of some Iranian money slithering its way towards Haq or some other Shia group.
The Gulf blog 
Don’t we say “all mouth and no trousers?”
Indeed, but I usually elide it somewhat (the wrong way, I realise)!
so i’m just curious as to you opinion on what this may mean for Qatar if:
a. Iran gets involved with Bahrain and Saudi
b. Saudi’s own problems escalate
Some Qataris here think that if Saudi isn’t stable and issues there explode, Qatar will too.
a. Highly, highly unlikely that Iran will get involved in any overt way whatsoever. However, in such an unlikely event Qatar wouldn’t do much aside from hunker down under their US shield. But it (Iran’s overt involvement) will just not happen.
b. What, exactly, in Qatar would explode? Sure; it wouldn’t be good for Qatar with a wobbly Saudi but I just don’t see how it would affect them egregiously.