MANAMA, October 11 (RIA Novosti) - The second Russia trip of a Bahraini monarch since the start of 2014 proves that Washington's traditional allies in the Persian Gulf are now willing to diversify their strategic relations away from the West, the deputy editor of Bahrain's oldest newspaper told RIA Novosti.
"During the 2011 events [Arab Spring uprising] in Bahrain, the West's support of the opposition made it clear to Persian Gulf states that they had made a mistake in relying on cooperation with the West alone. Their foreign policy began moving toward other centers of power across the world, including Russia," said Sayed Zahra, deputy editor at the Akhbar Al-Khaleej newspaper.
Zahra said Washington became painfully aware of its trusted ally's pivot toward Russia for the first time during the visit of Bahraini Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa to Moscow in April 2014. The West was angered by the monarch's deal with Russia to buy weapons, this at a time when the West was busy piling sanctions on Moscow over its handling of the Ukraine crisis.
But the West's opposition to Bahrain tightening military cooperation with Russia did not weaken its resolve, Zahra told RIA Novosti. On the contrary, the upcoming visit of Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, who is expected to attend Russia's inaugural Formula 1 Grand Prix in Sochi, is a sign that the Arab country has chosen to focus its geopolitical energy on Moscow.
According to the pundit, the Persian Gulf has come to realize that the United States has been trying to fan sectarian tensions in the region with the aim of "dividing and ruling" it, while the Gulf believes that a thaw in Washington's relations with Iran puts the region's stability and security at risk.
Hence, Zahra said, it is high time that Gulf Arab states and Russia turn over a new leaf in their relations.
At the height of the Ukrainian crisis, the United States imposed several rounds of sanctions against Russian officials, business people and companies and pressed for the allies in the West to follow its lead. The European Union, Switzerland, Canada, Australia and Japan soon caved in to the US sanctions push and came up with their own blacklists.
As a result, Russia has been looking to reinvigorate its alliances in the Asia-Pacific as part of Moscow's foreign policy pivot to balance out its souring ties with the West.
