Bahrain Mirror: Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani condemned Manama's decision to strip prominent Shiite cleric Ayatollah Sheikh Issa Qassim of citizenship, and stressed that it signals the Bahraini regime's imminent collapse.

"These measures are a sign that a regime that threatens its prominent figures with revoking their citizenship is drawing its last breaths," said Larijani said, addressing an open session of the parliament in Tehran on Tuesday.

"The Iranian parliament condemns this immature measure by the Al Khalifa and warns the Bahraini rulers that this insult to Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim is a reckless adventure, spoils all hopes to reach a peaceful solution and leads the tormented and deprived people towards rebellion and disobedience," he added.

Larijani advised the Al Khalifa regime to take lessons from the fate of past dictators in the region, including the last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and said the Bahraini rulers don't have even one thousandth of the past dictators' soldiers and support.

Bahrain's Interior Ministry announced in a statement yesterday the country's top Shiite cleric was stripped of his citizenship.

The decision is only the latest in a string of "inhumane" measures that include repressing political dissent, manipulating Shia religious funds, and killing Bahraini civilians, Larijani added.

Meanwhile, 251 Iranian lawmakers issued a statement, condemning the decision as well as the intentional community's silence toward it.

"What does this deadly silence in the face of flagrant violation of international law by the ruling reactionary regime in Bahrain mean?" they said in a statement.

"Have the rulers of this Islamic state thought about the dangerous and unpredictable consequences of this unwise move?" they added.

Arabic Version