Iran criticises Bahraini FM's remarks on Nasrallah as clear instance of 'state terrorism'

The Iranian Foreign Ministry said it is surprised at the Bahraini foreign minister's reported call for the assassination of the Lebanese Hezbollah Leader, Seyed Hassan Nasrallah, warning that such comments are a clear instance of "state terrorism". "If such comments are proved to be true (and uttered by the Bahraini foreign minister), they will be surprising; the words and clauses used by him would then mean an alignment in discourse with the Zionist regime, and raising them by an official of a Muslim country about a fully well-known Lebanese official and figure who is supported by the regional nations is a type of state terrorism," Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham said in her weekly press conference in Tehran on Tuesday. She expressed the hope that the al-Khalifa's remarks have been released improperly and mistakenly, and that the Bahraini officials would show rapid reaction against the report as soon as possible. Afkham's remarks came in response to a reporter when asked about Bahraini Foreign Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa's comments who had reportedly claimed last Tuesday that Nasrallah is a "criminal" with no right to criticize the kingdom over its treatment of its Shiite opposition. "Any contact with terrorist Hezbollah is a contact with the enemy," al-Khalifa wrote on his Twitter. Nasrallah last week dismissed the government of Bahrain as "dwarves whose oppression will get them only disappointment," warning that the Bahrain government "should not assume it can continue to oppress its people and pressure the outside world to remain silent". Nasrallah insisted that his party does not meddle in Bahraini affairs to back the country's Shiite majority, saying that Bahrain's Shiite opposition "does not belong to any (foreign) state or side." "What is happening in Bahrain is very dangerous," said Nasrallah, pointing to the justice ministry's decision to seek a judicial order to shut down a Shiite clerics' group, and to the latest arrest of a top figure in the main opposition association Al-Wefaq. Bahrain has seen frequent unrest since authorities cracked down on the popular uprising against the ruling monarchy in 2011. Human Rights Watch has accused the Bahraini government of violence and torture, with frequent reports of child protesters facing conditions which border on torture while in custody. Human rights organizations have also accused the West of turning a blind eye to the crackdown. Bahrain, a small island nation and home to the US Fifth Fleet, has seen 80 people killed since the Bahrain protests erupted, according to the International Federation for Human Rights. Hundreds more have been arrested.