Alwaght - The former Bahraini member of the parliament Jalal Firuz compares Saudi regime's crackdown on protests in Al-Awamiyah with the Israeli regime's oppression of the Palestinians. 

Al-Awamiyah, a small town in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province of al-Qatif, has recently witnessed violent clashes as Saudi regime force have responded with iron fist to minority Shiite protests.

The Saudi regime forces have for the past one week laid siege on city of Awamiyah killing several civilians including a child.

Saudi forces started their brutal attack on Awamiyah on May 10, using helicopter gunships and heavy weapons. The Saudi regime says the aim of the raid is to allow ‘renovation’ of the historic Al-Mosara neighborhood to make way for a planned a new project.

Brutal regime’s security forces have so-far killed at least four Shiite Muslim civilians in the region including a child while many more have been injured in the city so far. Reports indicate the regime forces shot dead the child while he was moving with his family near Awamiyah. The child’s mother was also critically injured in the attack.

In an interview with Alwaght and touching on what is happening in the Al-Awamiyah right now and what is the drive behind such a clampdown of the government against the people, Jalal Firuz said:

The campaign is coming as part of a decision taken by the Persian Gulf Arab regimes, specifically Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain, to crack down on the followers of the Ahl al-Bayt (the Shiites) of the region, as well as other opponents who come against their regional domination. They seek enslaving people and dealing with them as slaves. They cannot stand anybody who raises his head proudly and rejects to bow before them. AL-Awamiyah and the surrounding areas constitute a resistance camp in the face of the Saudi tyranny. The people of this village have raised the image of Sheikh Nimr Baqr al-Nimr, the top Shiite cleric who was oppressively executed by the Al Saud in 2016. Now they want to purge his picture’s raisers.

Firuz also told Alwaght he believes Trump's swearing-in as US president has emboldened Saudi rulers, saying they are "now influenced by a delusion ecstasy as a result of restoration of good relations with the US after President Donald Trump’s assumption of power. This closeness is an outcome of the financial bribes of about $100 billion, and will hit $300 billion, to win Trump’s favor. This spending comes while the kingdom is suffering from high budget deficit".

"The timing (of regime's crackdown on Shiite minority) coincides with the Saudi preparations for the Trump’s Riyadh visit for a bilateral summit to which the kingdom invited the allies. At the same time, the assault on Al-Awamiyah comes amid a Saudi Arabian notion that Riyadh cannot win the war against Yemen as it has failed to make gains during the past two years of anti-Yemeni war. They are facing the same loss in Iraq and Syria despite their sizable support for ISIS and other terrorist groups fighting the central governments in Baghdad and Damascus. During his recent interview, Mohammed bin Salman said that he will transfer the battle into Iran, whereas he is fighting in his land and against his own people who refuse to submit themselves to the Al Saud rule," the former Bahraini lawmaker told Alwaght.

Asked by Alwaght correspondent why are the international organizations turning a blind eye to the Al-Awamiyah developments and Why the Western mainstream media do not cover the crackdown, Britain based Jalal Firuz responded:

The West today cares solely about what is beneficial, and only limits its attention to its interests. It is narrow-viewed and, along with its media, treading on the human principles that for a long time it claimed defending. The Western media today are submitting to the Zionists such as Rupert Merdoch. They support who pays more. The AL Saud's huge pays from the Saudi people’s money silence these news outlets. Concerning the rights organizations like the Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, I tell you that they condemned the Saudi abuses but they hold no power but releasing statements. The United Nations Commission on Human Rights and others associated with the UN are supposed to consider the statements issued by the deep-rooted rights bodies. But we saw how disgracefully they gave Saudi Arabia a chair at the Commission on the Status of Women while the kingdom is apparently the world’s worst violator of the women’s rights. They also gave Riyadh membership of the Human Rights Council whereas it is shedding blood of the innocent people in different places. So we should not set heart on the international organizations or foreign media because they are hostages in the hands of their Western masters and high payers.

The Bahraini politician concluded his interview with Alwaght saying, the neighboring Bahraini people are holding pro-Awamiyah protests.

"The Bahraini people feel they share the same destiny with the people of Saudi Arabia. When the Saudi people suffer oppression, the Bahrainis suffer. We also know that Saudi troops are dispatched to suppress the Bahrainis. People are fed up with the Al Saud and heavily condemn use of military machine to clamp down on Al-Awamiyah and Al Masourah while blocking rescue operations as if we are seeing the Zionist regime's war on the Gaza Strip."