Bahrain-Saudi Arabia diplomatic conflict
| Bahrain-Saudi Arabia diplomatic conflict | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Bahrain Iran Libya Qatar Iraq Egypt United States United Kingdom |
 Saudi Arabia Kuwait United Arab Emirates | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Ali Salman Ali Khamenei Mohammed Hillary Clinton David Cameron Muhammad Tantawi Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani Jalal Talabani |
Abdullah of Saudi Arabia Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah | ||||||
The Bahrain-Saudi Arabia diplomatic conflict, alternatively known as the Manama-Riyadh conflict, was a diplomatic standoff between the countries of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. Sparked by the events of the 2011 Bahraini Revolution, the conflict began when Saudi Arabia, along with other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, refused to recognise the new republican government of Bahrain which had overthrew the ruling Khalifa monarchy and declared a republic in its place.
As allies of the deposed Bahraini monarchy, on whose behalf they had previously intervened militarily, Saudi Arabia, joined by Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, refused to recognise the new republican regime, deeming it to be "illegitimate", and instead continued supporting the imprisoned King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, for whom the Saudis and its allies demanded a release from imprisonment and reinstatement into power. After their initial demands were strongly rejected by President Ali Salman, Saudi Arabia began a months-long diplomatic and economic boycott by closing the King Fahd Causeway, which physically connects the two countries, while Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates both ceased further economic activities with Bahrain. Moreover, all three countries unanimously recalled their respective ambassadors and also had Bahrain suspended from the Gulf Cooperation Council with the sole condition for reinstatement being a return of the Khalifa monarchy. Meanwhile, despite the apparent boycott and isolation by its closest neighbours, Bahrain did otherwise find support in Iran, a fellow Shia Muslim country, as well as other countries including Qatar, Iraq, Libya, Egypt, and, most crucially, the United States. Moreover, after much public pressure, the United Kingdom, which previously supported the monarchy during the revolution, later declared their full support for the new republican government, threatening to seize any assets held in the country by royals of the United Arab Emirates, a country that otherwise opposed the republic along with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
Having initially begun in September 2011, around the time of the abolition of the Bahraini monarchy, the conflict eventually came to an end around June 2012 when the United States, led by President Hillary Clinton, threatened to withdraw military support for Saudi Arabia and its allies unless they recognise Bahrain's "democratic" and "popular" republican government, marking a rare moment of conflict between the Americans and their Middle Eastern allies who previously enjoyed strong military support from the United States. In addition, a similarly pro-Bahrain stance adopted by the European Union soon compelled Saudi Arabia and its allies to end their diplomatic and economic boycott of Bahrain and officially recognise the new republican government amidst worries of an economic conflict and diplomatic isolation.
The aftermath of the conflict, which saw Bahrain's republican government gain official recognition from its neighbours, was seen domestically as a major diplomatic victory for President Ali Salman, who later went on to win the country's first presidential election by a near-landslide victory. Meanwhile, internationally, the resolution of the conflict was seen not just as a major success of the Arab Spring but also as an apparent decline in the influence of the traditional regional powerhouses Saudi Arabia, who were notably compelled by Western pressure to recognise the new form of government in Bahrain despite previous stern opposition against it. In addition, the outcome was also seen by some as a victory for Iran in its longstanding proxy war with Saudi Arabia, given that the Sunni Muslim monarchy in Bahrain was overthrown in favour of a republican government led by the country's Shia Muslim majority. In the midst of this, Iran's theocratic regime was overthrown in the Green Revolution which saw the restoration of the Pahlavi monarchy and the formation of a more liberal, democratic government. However, despite being comparatively less warlike and more friendly towards Western countries and its immediate neighbours, the new Iranian government is deemed to be still at odds with the Saudi government anyway given their repression of Shia Muslims in the country and the deeply contrasting ideologies advocated by both nations respectively with Saudi Arabia being an Islamic absolute monarchy while Iran is a democratic, secular constitutional monarchy.