DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – are battle of Bahrain is no longer merely on its shores.
It is now in Tehran, where the leader of the Friday prayers, cursed the "enemy" power, which includes the Saudi-led military reinforcements to Bahrain embattled Sunni monarchy. It is in Iraq, with Shiites marching under banners pledging to join the fight in the Gulf Kingdom.
When Saudi troops and other Gulf forces moved to Bahrain this week, the conflict suddenly was pushed on a larger scene with larger bets — and in the process, become perhaps the most complex conflict in the Arab world season of upheaval.
Tiny Bahrain — a speck just off the Saudi coast on the world map — is now an arena for some of the most crucial Middle East tensions: heavyweight rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran, the regional fallout from Shiite anger and Washington's efforts to influence its strategic Gulf allies counter Iran's growing ambitions of the Middle East.
"Bahrain is more crises wrapped into one package," said Theodore Karasik, expert Regional Affairs on Dubai-based Institute for the Middle East and the Gulf military analysis.
Rebellion in Yemen and Libya also have very important issues in the balance, including Moammar Gadhafi eccentric regime and U.S.-led fight against an al Qæda expires fate in Yemeni basins. But Bahrain unrest resonates even broader.
It is both a bitter domestic duel — between Sunni rulers and majority Shiites — and a crossroads for big three Gulfs: Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United States.
Rapid events of last week in Bahrain pushed each in different directions.
Saudi Arabia roared into action, leading a 1 500-strong Gulf force support Bahrain reeling Sunni dynasty after more than a month of protests from Shiites seeking to break the Royal family 200-year-old grip on power.
It was the Golf version of a rescue mission: to believe that any further progress of demonstrators could embolden threats against Sunni leaders around the region and allow the Shiite power Iran to carve out a foothold on Saudi Arabia doorstep.
Iran strongly condemned the military intervention and withdrew its Ambassador back to Bahrain. Iran's ally Hizbollah in Lebanon also crawled insults in Saudi Arabia, and Shiites in Iraq have staged a series of protest marches.
U.S. officials, meanwhile, is caught in a bind policy. Washington has opposed to the introduction of Golf military power in Bahrain, which hosts the US Navy 5th fleet. But the United States also stands behind Bahrain leaders, who say that they invited troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
"Regardless of the United States says the bottom line, Washington still supports Bahrain regime and cannot go too far in criticizing the main ally Saudi Arabia," says Shadi Hamid, Director of research at The Brookings Doha Center in Qatar. "Bahrain is a major problem now than just Bahrain".
Nicholas Burns, a former top State Department diplomat with long experience in the region, said the military deployment "opened up a clear division of tasks between the Saudi royal family and the American Government on how to most effectively respond to demonstrations for greater openness and freedom in the Arab world."
"This is a risk for the Saudis as their troop deployments can end up with toughening determination of demonstrators in Bahrain," he said.
It is unclear how much the Saudi-led forces have actively participated in the enforce Bahrain martial law-style rule, which was imposed by the Bahrain's king on Tuesday.
Security forces flew the red and white flag of Bahrain in the landmark Pearl Square in Manama after overrunning a protest camp. Military vehicles with Saudi marking was not seen on the main control points where forces wearing a black ski mask.
But Shiite protesters claimed to have heard the distinctive Saudi accent among the security forces during clashes this week — although Bahrain police and the armed forces includes many Sunni Arabs from Saudi Arabia and elsewhere given citizenship to try to compensate for the Shiite population advantage.
Shortly after the Saudi forces entered Bahrain, gathered a crowd of Shiite Muslims outside the main State hospital in a ragtag resistance force. They are carried out in what they could find: scraps of wood, tubes, a butter knife.
"Who will decide your future?" shouted one protester. "Them or us?"
Now, the presence of the Saudi-led forces makes any event in Bahrain a potential regional flashpoint, which could drag the United States around the Middle East, the Shiites and other portraying Bahrain as under occupation of one of Washington's main Arab allies.
In Tehran, a senior Iranian cleric, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, his national broadcast Friday sermon calling on Bahrain, Shiites "resist against the enemy until you die WINS." Outside, demonstrators called beans Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa "kills" and drew analogies to Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.
A banner reading: "death to the House of Saud."
Bahrain Thursday lashed at Iran for "lobbying" on behalf of the Gulf Kingdom's Shiites, who represent about 70 percent of the population of Bahrain.
In Baghdad, marched followers of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr under banners promised to join fellow Shiites in Bahrain to fight the Saudi-led forces. In the meantime suspended the level Shiite cleric in Iraq, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the Shiite religious teachings schools across Iraq to show solidarity with Bahrain demonstrators.
"There are real massacres taking place in Bahrain," said Sheikh Maitham al-Jamri, who said he was a Bahrain Shiite cleric, demonstrators in Sadr City Baghdad's. "But if they cut us chunks and burn US 70 times, we will not stop our calls for change. If all communications: was blocked in Bahrain, the people of Iraq and Lebanon calls vote "no, no to injustice!" can be heard aloud. "
Around 50 protesters gathered Thursday outside the Saudi Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, shouting "get out of Bahrain" before a visit by the Saudi Arabian foreign minister Prince Saud al-Faisal.
Saudi's King Abdullah gave no mention of the military force in Bahrain in a three-minute speech on Saudi tv Friday before the announcement of a new bonanza jobs, cash and housing in attempts to placate reformers call for challenges of his autocratic regime.
"The Saudi fears was a kind of ripple effect," said Toby Jones, an expert in Bahrain issues at Rutgers University. "Bahrain is seen as simply too important not to intervene, they argued, the ruling Sunni fraternity around the Gulf was vulnerable and it was time to act."
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Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, and Bushra Juhi in Baghdad contributed to this report.
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