The comments came after Bahraini king said the Persian Gulf state respects liberties and has tolerance towards dissents while there is ongoing crackdown on protests in capital, Manama.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Zayd al-Isa, Middle East expert from London, to further discuss the issue. What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.

Press TV: What do you make of King Hamad’s remarks about the monarchy respecting liberty and practicing tolerance in the middle of this extremely harsh crackdown?

Al-Isa: Well it is highly laughable, it is basically worse than a joke because in reality the only liberty and the only freedom he is talking about is basically the Khmer Rouge style liberty and the Khmer Rouge style democracy. That is the sort of democracy that they have in Bahrain. It is totally based on torture, brutality, abduction and also discrimination which is even worse than the discrimination witnessed in South Africa.

People do not have any rights, they do not have dignity, they do not have justice and all they have been calling for peacefully now for nearly two years is democratic change and political reform of the sort that the Americans claim that they wholeheartedly support all around the world but they refused to put the money where their mouth is when it comes to Bahrain where the dictatorship and the tyrannical regime is one of the most strongest allies.

Of course the only popular uprising in the Arab world that has been subjected to external occupation and to external invasion by the Saudi forces who are playing a major if not a pivotal role in actually supporting and standing by through thick and thin the Bahraini forces which the majority of them are actually foreigners lured by office of citizenship and we have seen that the only solution that the Bahraini king can offer is actually more of the same which is brutal oppression…

Press TV: Looking again at what king Hamad has said many would be quite surprised that he even had the goal to talk about liberty and to talk about freedom in the middle of this. Does that mean that he has the tacit approval of Washington that he is not worried about being criticized by Western governments, by human rights organization and not paying the price for what he is saying being so opposite of what is the reality on the ground?

Al-Isa: Yes definitely one of the central pillars that the so-called king of Bahrain depends on is the wholehearted and emphatic support by the Americans. Let’s remember that Bahrain is the home of the Fifth Fleet so that basically places an extra responsibility on the Americans and it is highly inconceivable that such atrocities can take place under their very eyes without full consent.

And we have to say that if the king of Bahrain is also totally dependent on the Saudi invading and occupying forces in the face of fierce resistance and fierce overwhelming rejection by the ordinary people of Bahrain who have been calling out for freedom of expression, for democracy and for political change and all they get is a massive brutal and ruthless crackdown and it seems that the only solution that the Bahraini dictatorship can offer is a security solution and brutal force.

AHK/JR