Leading Bahraini human rights activist, Nabeel Rajab, has had his prison term cut from three to two years. Rajab has been imprisoned since August, on charges of organizing illegal gatherings and inciting violence.

The activist’s lawyer was demanding his release. The uprising in Bahrain has been ongoing for almost two years now, with the Shia majority demanding democratic reform from the Sunni ruling family.

RT talks to geopolitical analyst Patrick Henningsen.

“Anything that the regime is going to give way on will be a positive thing,” he told RT. However he noted that, “to have any genuine democratic reform in a country like Bahrain, that is housing the US fifth naval fleet and at the same time Washington and London and Tel-Aviv are talking aggressively, bating Iran into a military conflict, perhaps, that makes it a huge problem to see any reform happening now in Bahrain,” Henningsen said.