Bahrain’s top Shiite cleric, Sheikh Isa Qassim, warned that US military bases pose an existential threat to their host countries and called for their removal.
“America establishes military bases in weak countries so that it reaps the gains while those countries bear the losses, danger, poverty, and destruction,” Sheikh Qassim wrote in a post on X.
He argued that US bases on foreign soil “function as armies through which it can wage war against those countries, destabilize them whenever it chooses, and destroy them.”
“It uses them as compliant instruments that bear the costs and consequences of its aggressive wars outside their borders, creating enduring hostility and ongoing conflict between those countries and the states it attacks,” he added.
“For this reason, the peoples of these countries have the right to press their governments to reject the presence of such bases on their soil and to do all they can to free themselves from this nightmare weighing on them and threatening their existence,” Sheikh Qassim said, calling for international support for nations seeking to remove US forces.
The cleric also accused Washington of using embassies to exert political control over “weak states,” arguing that the US wants its diplomatic missions to “act as governments” rather than serve “as a bridge for understanding” with other countries.
