The new Persian Gulf war of ‘condemnation statements’ against Lebanon

Last Wednesday, the Lebanese Minister of Interior, Bassam Mawlawi, announced his intention to deport all members of the Bahraini opposition Al-Wefaq Society, in response to Bahrain’s Foreign Ministry rage over the press conference, held by top opposition group Al-Wefaq in Beirut, on the ninth of this month.

This recent diplomatic development between Beirut and Manama has shed light on one of the most heinous human rights violations practiced by the latter against the Bahraini opposition, which is the security pursuit outside the borders; a security pursuit by a repressive tribal regime against its peaceful opponents, after it illegally revoked their citizenships in violation of all laws and international covenants.

It is noteworthy that the aforementioned conference, which was preceded by dozens of parallel human rights conferences and events, and coincided with the release of Al Wefaq's annual human rights report, which revealed the escalation of official repression in the country in recent years, in a dangerous and unprecedented manner.

According to various international human rights groups, the Bahrainis’ peaceful uprising is a just and peaceful movement based on the laws and United Nations human rights standards as it demands freedom and legitimate self-evident rights.

Thus, the solution is not to persecute and restrict these exiled dissidents, but to comprehensively address the reasons for their activism abroad and not their homeland. Furthermore, the prosecution must be carried out against the violator of human rights in Bahrain, and not those who expose these violations and demand reconciliation.

In fact, it seems that the Gulf dictatorial monarchies have resolved, with their recent "not innocent" official statements, to impose an unjust and aggressive siege against Lebanon, starting with the fabricated crisis against the backdrop of resigned Minister of Information George Qardahi’s old comments, in which he stated that the long-running war against Yemen is “futile and must end”.

It also seems that Prime Minister Najib Mikati and his Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi are seeking to replace the slogans of freedom, which Beirut has celebrated for decades, with repressive ones that fit the Gulf mood and its aggressive agenda, practiced against Damascus, Gaza, Sanaa and other hubs of resistance-axis during the past decade.

For decades, Lebanon indeed has been a safe haven and a free platform for political opponents and activists, who were suppressed by dictatorial regimes. Likewise, the Bahraini deportees were forcibly driven to Beirut by the oppressive and tyrannical Al Khalifa regime merely because they demanded fair political participation and the need to address the accumulated crises, including political naturalization, rampant corruption, impunity, nepotism, etc.

Consequently, what Mikati and Mawlawi decided, without consulting the rest of the ministers in the government, will pave the way to further infringe the Lebanese sovereignty. Rather, it is in itself a violation of paragraph (b) in the preamble to the Lebanese Constitution, which affirms Lebanon’s full commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, whose Article 14 states that everyone has “the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.”

Besides, the right to asylum in Lebanon is a constitutional right, as affirmed by the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, to which Lebanon acceded in the year 2000, and which states that no state party may expel any person, return him, or extradite him to another country if there are reasons that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture.

Therefore, the targeted is not the Bahraini opposition, but Lebanon, whose citizens have remarkably expressed their condemnation of the deportation decision, stressing that it is arbitrary, illegal and will not be implemented at the expense of these forcibly persecuted exiles.