The Islamic Front for the Liberation of Bahrain (Arabic: الجبهة الإسلامية لتحرير البحرين) was an alleged resistance group that advocated theocratic rule in Bahrain against the Sunni ruling Al Khalifa family allegedly from 1981 to the 1990s. According to the Bahraini government, it was trained and financed by Iranian intelligence and Revolutionary Guards.
The professed aim of the Front, as alleged by the Bahraini government was the establishment of an Islamic republic in Bahraini’. It came to international prominence as the alleged front organisation for the Alleged 1981 failed coup in Bahrain, which attempted to install Iraqi Ayatollah Hadi al-Modarresi as the spiritual leader of a theocratic state., while Hadi served as Khomeini’s “personal representative” in Bahrain.
According to Daniel Byman of Georgetown University, Iran's backing of the Front was part of a strategy to support radical Islamist groups throughout the region:
| “ | For Iran, supporting subversive movements became a way of weakening and destabilizing its neighbors as well as spreading its revolution and toppling what in the eyes of Tehran were illegitimate regimes. In 1981, shortly after the outbreak of the Iranian revolution, Tehran allegedly aided Shi’a radicals of the Islamic Front for the Liberation of Bahrain in an attempted coup against Bahrain’s ruling Al Khalifa family. | ” |
The alleged Front allegedly served as an Iranian proxy in the 1980s. It is also referred to as a 'virtual organization' of Iranian intelligence. In Low Intensity Conflict in the Third World by Stephen Blank et al., it is argued that the alleged Front's alleged attempted coup d’etat in 1981 cannot be understood without reference to Iran’s geo-strategic objectives in its war with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq:
| “ | A more persuasive view of the Bahrain incident is the argument that the military conditions on the Iran-Iraq war front dictated a flanking movement that would isolate Iraq from its Arab support and secure for Iran a commanding position on the maritime oil route out of the Gulf. During the 14 months between the beginning of the war and the Bahrain coup, military activities had settled into a stalemate along a thousand kilometre front. The Iraqis had occupied the portion of Iranian Khuzistan that was ethnically Arab and were at the gates of Ahwaz and Dezful, the two principle oil producing towns of the province. But they were unable to exploit their advantage. The war had also degenerated into a contest of personalities between Khomeini and Saddam
Hussein, each of who demanded the dismantlement of the other’s government as a precondidtion of peace…By unleashing the forced of Islamic revolution in Bahrain, Khomeini was betting that he could physically outflank Iraq and capitalise politically on the Gulf Arabs’ failure to support Iraq. |
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