Bahraini measures including arrests, citizenship revocations, travel bans, and centralized control of religious endowments have increased pressure on Shiites, pushing some opposition figures to relocate to Iraq, increasingly seen as a safe haven and a source of regional tension.

After Donald Trump warned that Iran would face a very powerful strike with a wider range of targets, it quickly became clear that this was no ordinary military operation and that the strikes were aimed directly at the country’s critical infrastructure.

Bahrain enters 2026 with soaring debt, enacting taxes, spending cuts, and energy price hikes to stabilize finances and boost non-oil revenue, but analysts warn that without multi-year reforms, fiscal crises could recur.

Amid the Israeli aggression on Qatar, urgent questions arose over Washington’s complicity and whether the Gulf states that normalized relations would go so far as to cut ties with the Israeli Occupation in defense of the Gulf system and its much-touted unity.

Bahrain aligns closely with Saudi Arabia in all its actions, which explains Manama's hint at normalization with Iran, among other reasons: What are these reasons?