The top commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Qasem Soleimani, in a bluntly worded statement, warned the Bahraini government that it would pay a price for its decision to revoke the citizenship of the spiritual leader of the kingdom’s Shiite majority, Sheikh Isa Qassim. 


Bahrain had earlier revoked the citizenship of Sheikh Qassim, the state news agency reported Monday, prompting protests outside his home. 


Soleimani suggested Bahrainis may respond with armed action. 


"The Al-Khalifa [rulers of Bahrain] surely know their aggression against Sheikh Isa Qassim is a red line and that crossing it would set Bahrain and the whole region on fire, and it would leave no choice for people but to resort to armed resistance," Soleimani said in a statement published by Fars news agency. 


The move against Ayatollah Isa Qassim comes less than a week after a court ordered Bahrain’s main opposition Al-Wefaq group closed, accusing it of fomenting sectarian unrest and of having links to a foreign power, in an apparent reference to regional Shiite power Iran. 


Qassim could potentially face expulsion from the country. 


The U.S. State Department issued a strongly worded statement criticizing the move. 


"We are alarmed by the government of Bahrain’s decision to revoke the citizenship of prominent Shiite cleric Sheikh Isa Qassim," U.S. spokesman John Kirby told reporters. "We remain deeply troubled by the government of Bahrain’s practice of withdrawing the nationality of its citizens arbitrarily," he said, citing concern that dissidents could be rendered stateless. 


A crowd of up to 4,000 people gathered outside Qassim’s house in the Shiite village of Diraz, west of the capital Manama, to show their support for him, witnesses said

Source: NNA