By IRNA,
London: The continuing uprising in Bahrain will lead to major changes in the way that the Persian Gulf country is ruled, according to a Bahraini medical doctor.
“I’m sure they will succeed. I am sure they will achieve many of their demands,” Ali Isa al-Faraj said in an interview with IRNA.
Faraj said that more protesters took to the streets in Bahrain after Jummah prayers on Friday, which also coincided with a ‘Day of the Martyrs.’
“There were thousands in Manama protesting, increasing pressure on the government,” he said after joining an Arab solidarity march in London on Friday.
British human rights and peace groups joined a variety of Arab liberation movements in the march of solidarity that assembled outside the Bahraini Embassy before moving on to the Libyan Embassy and ending in a protest rally outside Prime Minister David Cameron’s office.
“Protesters are putting a lot of pressure on the government for a major change not just a superficial change” in Bahrain, the medical doctor said.
He said that there had not been any serious negotiations so far to meet the people’s demands but expected that they were likely to start soon although “no one was sure.”
“It is likely that they (the government) are buying the time and getting support from other (Persian) Gulf countries” Faraj told IRNA.
His belief was that the authorities were trying to manipulate the situation by using delaying tactics, but he was hopeful that the “majority of people are not with the government.”
The Bahraini doctor said that the Arab people were aware of the way the West was accustomed to supporting dictators in the Middle East for their own vested interests.
“The West is cautious about any new government that will come to rule in any of the Arab countries that will oppose western policies,” he said.
A London-based leading figure in the Bahraini opposition movements previously told IRNA that Western policy towards the protests in Bahrain is “ill-judged” but hoped they will change and add to international pressure on the ruling family.
Journalist and academic Saeed al-Shahabi said that he was also hopeful that the people in Bahrain retain their solidarity and are “not deceived” by the offer of a national dialogue.