“The United States of course has a major military interest in Bahrain, our Fifth Fleet is housed there and they have no other real base in the Persian Gulf region,” William Beeman, professor at the University of Minnesota, told Press TV on Monday.

The US is “terribly afraid” that a possible government fall in Bahrain would endanger its interests in the Middle East, added Beeman.

He also criticized Washington for maintaining a “strategic silence” over the human rights violations in Bahrain, saying, “It seems that when the United States interests are not affected, the United States government is quite happy to condemn human rights violations, but when their interests are at stake, then they remain silent.”

On October 20, former CNN journalist Amber Lyon stated that the Manama regime is paying the American news network to ignore its brutal crackdown on peaceful protests across the kingdom and create content that shows Bahrain is in a favorable light.

The Bahraini uprising began in mid-February 2011.

Protesters initially called for political reforms and a constitutional monarchy, a demand that later changed to an outright call for the ouster of the ruling Al Khalifa family following its brutal crackdown on popular protests.

Scores have been killed, many of them under torture while in custody, and thousands more detained since the popular uprising started in the kingdom.

MKA/AB/AS