"The era when Tehran conducted a policy of megalomania, and spoke from a position of superiority, has gone, never to return." – Kuwaiti MP Mubarak Al-Wa'lan
The deployment of Saudi and Gulf military forces to Bahrain in mid-March 2011 to suppress the Iran-supported popular Shi'ite uprising there was a seminal event in the Sunni-Shi'ite conflict, redrawing the lines between the Shi'ites and the Sunnis. Iran's defeat in this crisis has far-reaching ramifications for the reshaping of power relations in the region.
A month after the beginning of the unrest in Bahrain – which was clearly Shi'ite vs. Sunni in nature, as underlined by Iran's expressions of support for the demands of the Bahraini Shi'ites – Saudi Arabia, together with the Gulf states, launched a military move, sending some 1,000 Saudi troops from the Peninsula Shield Force to Bahrain. This military move, based on the Gulf Cooperation Council states' joint defense pact, was aimed at helping the Bahraini authorities suppress the demonstrations.
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