Counter-Terrorism: Iran Has a Plan

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October 20, 2006: Iran has been caught secretly nurturing Shia rebels on the Arab side of the Gulf. Take Bahrain, for example. The religious alignment of the people of Bahrain is about 25-percent Sunni, about 60-percent Shia, and 15-percent everyone else, mostly foreigners who are working in the country. Although dominated and discriminated against by the Sunni minority, the Shia have been growing in numbers over the years. It would appear that Iran is planning to spark a major Shia uprising in the next two or three years. Iran has always had a lot of influence on the Arab (western) side of the Persian Gulf. For example, some 10-percent of the population of Bahrain is ethnically Iranian, and about 75-percent Arab. Many Arabs living on the Gulf coast, speak Iranian as a second language. Trade across the Gulf has been going on for thousands of years. Arab governments have been looking hard for Iranian plots in the last year, and they have been finding them. At first, it appeared to be the usual Iranian support for their fellow Shia. But more extensive pro-Iranian Shia networks have been detected, and it appears that Iran has some big plans, which may, or may not, have been compromised.

 

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