Lobbying 2016: United States holds its nose as Bahrain intensifies crackdown

The Obama administration remains determined to resume military cooperation with Bahrain while simultaneously seeking to reverse the island kingdom's continuing crackdown on political opponents.

The clashing goals have forced the US State Department to adopt conflicting policies. Top US officials have condemned the intensifying repression against the Shiite opposition while in the same breath endorsing Bahraini claims of nefarious Iranian influence inside the country.

Human-rights groups and a handful of lawmakers are pushing for a tougher US response, to no avail. The island's strategic prominence as a US Navy base coupled with an aggressive lobbying campaign have so far ensured that any criticism is muted, if expressed at all.

"As repression in Bahrain has continued unabated, US policy toward democracy and human rights in the small Gulf monarchy and home to the US Navy's Fifth Fleet has notably weakened," the nonprofit Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED) noted in a sharply critical report earlier this year.