Transcript [00:00] Hey everyone. So, one of the things that [00:01] I've tried to do on this channel since [00:03] the beginning of the war is cover [00:06] plot lines or side plots as it were [00:09] that have to do with this war that are [00:12] going on in this war that are not [00:14] getting coverage because they're kind of [00:15] off on the sidelines. And we're going to [00:17] go down a really interesting rabbit hole [00:18] in this video and talk about what's [00:21] going on domestically in the countries [00:23] in the Gulf and how it's a and how [00:26] they're [00:27] how they're weaponizing some of their [00:29] own laws against components of their [00:31] population who they see as disloyal. A [00:34] lot of it has to do with citizenship. [00:36] This is a really interesting story. Stay [00:38] with me on this one. [00:39] So, [00:41] uh [00:42] here's the short version of it. Gulf [00:44] states are looking at their own [00:45] populations differently now. Shiite [00:47] communities, people of Persian descent, [00:49] journalists who filmed the wrong thing. [00:51] People are getting arrested, imprisoned, [00:53] and stripped of citizenship. [00:56] And underneath all of it is a question [00:58] that these governments are openly asking [01:01] about certain segments of their own [01:03] populations. Like, are you really one of [01:05] us? Remember, these are monarchies. [01:07] These are not free countries. [01:09] And the answers that they're coming to [01:11] are being determined not by what people [01:13] believe, but who they are, what sect of [01:16] the population, what section of the [01:17] population they're from. But here's the [01:19] twist, and we'll get to this towards the [01:20] end of the video, Iran is doing [01:23] something [01:24] very similar, but in reverse, in the [01:26] opposite direction. They're actually [01:28] offering citizenship to foreign [01:30] supporters. They're using the same [01:32] weapon from the other side, and it might [01:33] be in response to it. So, stick around [01:35] to the end of the video. It's going to [01:36] be a very interesting twist in this one. [01:38] So, that's what we're going to dig into [01:40] today. So, let's get right to it. Now, [01:42] before we get into what's happening [01:44] right now with the Iran war, I need to [01:45] give you some context because the story [01:47] only makes sense [01:49] if you understand [01:52] that Gulf governments [01:55] did not invent the tool of stripping [01:57] citizenship [01:59] just now or last month. They've been [02:01] using this tool for years. The way we [02:03] think of citizenship in the West is not [02:05] the way they use it. The Iran war didn't [02:06] create this weapon. [02:08] Just gave them a reason to use it. So, [02:10] let me introduce you to a man named [02:12] Jawad Fairouz. One of the pieces I'm [02:14] going to be using a fair amount in this [02:15] video that I that was one of my starting [02:18] points here was a long piece written in [02:21] DW. This is a German news outlet that uh [02:25] does some interesting work. I I use [02:26] their stuff [02:27] frequently. [02:29] How the Iran war is bringing back [02:31] citizenship as a weapon. Some Gulf [02:33] states states trapped between Iran, [02:36] Israel, and the US in the current war [02:38] have started revoking the citizenship of [02:40] locals considered traders. [02:44] Okay. We're not going to read this whole [02:45] piece cuz it's it's very [clears throat] [02:47] long. But, I'm going to There's a few [02:48] excerpts that we need to look at. [02:51] So, it starts with a story about a guy [02:52] named Jawad Fairouz. This and this [02:54] actually has nothing to do with the Iran [02:55] war, but they're using it as background. [02:57] Jawad Fairouz found out that he no [02:59] longer had a country while watching [03:01] television. Quote, "I was on a short [03:03] trip to London." [03:07] Fairouz, a former politician in [03:08] Bahrain's parliament, told [03:11] told DW, "When the Ministry of Interior [03:14] decided to revoke the nationality of [03:17] people in the opposition, they read 31 [03:20] names on TV. Mine was one. It was such a [03:23] shock because I never called for the [03:25] government to be overthrown. That this [03:27] was in November 2012. Fairouz had [03:29] resigned from parliament in protest at [03:32] security forces killing demonstrators [03:34] during the so-called Arab Spring. He was [03:37] arrested [03:38] and he was tortured and then his [03:40] citizenship was revoked. And he was not [03:43] alone. Bahraini authorities would [03:44] eventually withdraw citizenship from [03:46] close to 990 [03:48] people. [03:49] So, around 1,000 people. Made stateless, [03:52] virus applied for asylum, became a UK [03:54] citizen, and now runs the organization [03:57] Salam for democracy and human rights. [04:00] Um and uh yeah, and it goes on to say [04:02] that he's so worried about what what [04:03] will happen to other people who might be [04:05] subjected to this. Now, I don't know [04:06] who's right and who's wrong in revoking [04:08] this [04:09] this guy's uh citizenship. [04:11] So here's a Shiite member of parliament [04:13] um uh who had his, you know, from from [04:16] um [04:18] he's a a Shiite member of parliament [04:21] from Bahrain, and he had his citizenship [04:24] revoked by the Bahraini government. [04:29] Okay? [04:32] So Bahrain eventually came under [04:34] international pressure, and they [04:35] reinstated some of those citizenships. [04:38] Um [04:39] like 550 of them were restored in 2019, [04:42] but there's another like [04:44] close to 500 people who remain [04:46] stateless. [04:48] Um and now Fairouz is watching you you [04:51] know, it says here at the end that [04:52] Fairouz is watching the news again, and [04:53] he's worried because it looks like this [04:55] might happen to other people. Cuz the [04:57] Iran war [04:58] gave the Bahraini government a [05:01] justification, a context, just like they [05:03] used in the Arab Spring. [05:06] A uh and there and there's, you know, [05:08] with even less likelihood of [05:10] international pushback [05:12] because of the context of this war. [05:14] So again, revoking citizenship is not a [05:17] new thing in the Gulf. That's why I [05:18] wanted to bring that up. Now, let's talk [05:20] about Kuwait for a moment, cuz Kuwait is [05:21] a slightly different story, and it's [05:23] important to keep it uh to keep it [05:25] separate from the Iran war specific [05:28] material. Because again, Kuwait also, [05:30] like Bahrain, [05:33] has been using citizenship revocation [05:36] over the years for various reasons. [05:38] Kuwait actually began its revoking of [05:41] citizenship campaign uh years ago. Then [05:44] they uh the new Emir, Meshal Al-Ahmad [05:47] came to power in December 2023. I'm sure [05:51] you all knew about that, right? The new [05:54] emir of Kuwait, December 2023, 4 days [05:57] into his reign [06:00] in his very first speech to the National [06:02] Assembly, he singled out the citizenship [06:04] issue, complaining that it was altering [06:06] Kuwaiti identity. [06:09] A few months later, he launched a [06:12] a massive campaign of revoking [06:15] citizenship. [06:16] I think it was the They They call it the [06:18] largest campaign of citizenship [06:20] revocation in the history of the Arab [06:21] world. I don't know what to compare it [06:23] to. The official justifications for the [06:25] citizenship revocation are fraud, [06:27] forgery, unauthorized dual nationality. [06:32] But a law passed in December 2024, so a [06:35] year after he took power, added that [06:37] citizenship could be removed for, quote, [06:39] moral turpitude, which usually in the [06:42] Muslim world is code for, uh, being [06:45] homosexual, or quote, actions aimed at [06:48] threatening state security, including [06:50] criticism of the emir. [06:52] So you could lose your citizenship if [06:54] you criticize the emir, or if you take [06:57] an action that threatens state security, [06:59] which is pretty vague. Researchers found [07:01] that the primary targets have largely [07:03] been women. [07:05] Specifically, women who obtained [07:06] citizenship through marriage to Kuwaiti [07:08] men. [07:09] And now they're having that status [07:11] retroactively stripped. Now by the time [07:14] the war started, the Iran war started in [07:16] February 2026, [07:18] tens of thousands of Kuwaitis had [07:20] already lost their nationality because [07:22] of these rules. [07:24] The war didn't start this in Kuwait, [07:26] right? The war What What the war did was [07:28] it it added another layer, another [07:30] pretext to strip people of citizenship, [07:33] a new category of disloyalty to [07:35] prosecute, on top of what was already an [07:37] ongoing campaign. Remember, this [07:39] This is This is fairly new in Kuwait. [07:40] It's the last couple years they've been [07:42] stripping people of citizenship left and [07:43] right. [07:45] Now, I want to show you something [07:45] interesting. [07:47] Um and it's from WANA, right? Which is [07:49] our favorite Iranian state media outlet [07:51] in English. And you know how we read it [07:52] on this channel. We want to we we don't [07:54] take it at face value. We use it to [07:56] understand what Iran is doing and [07:57] saying, right? So, WANA has been [08:00] covering the Kuwait citizenship story. [08:04] Right? They have been covering it. Um [08:08] Well, they've been covering actually no, [08:09] wait. I don't have that piece up here. [08:11] But, WANA's been covering it. The [08:12] Iranian state media has been covering [08:14] the let's call it persecution of Shiites [08:18] in their in their country. [08:20] Uh in in in in other countries in the [08:23] region. That's really what I wanted to [08:24] just share with you. And you you know, [08:26] Iranian state media is is paying [08:29] attention [08:30] to these Shiite communities that are [08:33] being in their eyes persecuted across [08:35] the region. [08:38] So, we'll come back to that in a in a in [08:39] a bit. So, let's get to let's get back [08:41] to what happened uh since [08:45] the war started on February 28th. [08:46] Because this is where the pre-existing [08:48] weapon gets activated at a new scale [08:51] with new justification. So, Amnesty [08:53] International [08:55] um Amnesty International reported [08:59] that [09:01] more than a thousand people across the [09:03] Gulf states have been arrested in [09:04] connection with war-related expression. [09:07] We're talking about people arrested for [09:08] sharing footage of missile [09:09] interceptions, for posting content that [09:11] expressed sympathy with Iran, for [09:13] participating in demonstrations. [09:15] Criminal courts have handed down [09:16] sentences of three to 10 years in [09:18] prison. In some cases after very fast [09:22] trials, let's say. [09:23] In Bahrain specifically, there were as [09:25] many as 250 arrests in March alone of [09:28] people who allegedly posted anti-war [09:31] content online or expressed sympathy [09:34] with Iran. And then in late April [09:36] the government announced that it would [09:38] review the citizenship of anyone deemed [09:40] disloyal. [09:42] Reuters confirmed, and here, take a look [09:44] at this uh headline, Reuters confirmed [09:46] that Bahrain revoked the citizenship [09:50] of 69 people specifically over support [09:54] for Iran. [09:55] And here's a detail. [10:01] Excuse me. And here's a detail from the [10:03] DW piece that I think the most important [10:05] is the most important line in the in the [10:06] whole article. [10:08] Um can pull that piece back up here. [10:11] It's from it's from the Bahrain section. [10:13] Here we go. [10:15] In the Bahrain part of this article, [10:17] it's it uh cites a Bahraini source [10:20] speaking anonymously because their [10:21] family's still in Bahrain who said this. [10:23] He said, quote, "I am hearing about [10:25] arrests of citizens [10:29] perceived as siding with an enemy [10:32] state." [10:34] In particular, their people of Persian [10:36] or mixed Arab and Persian descent are [10:38] being associated with Iran regardless of [10:41] their actual views on the conflict. [10:42] Think about that. Regardless of their [10:44] actual views, people are being targeted [10:45] because of their ethnicity, because they [10:47] look like the enemy, because of their [10:48] name. [10:50] Okay? So, [10:51] let me give you a human case study that [10:52] illustrates how this works. There's a [10:54] Kuwaiti television presenter, [10:56] a state television presenter, meaning [10:58] she works for the government in Kuwait [11:00] named Zainab Dashti. Okay? And we're [11:02] going to pull up her picture here, and [11:04] this is from one. [11:05] Okay? Zainab Dashti, Kuwaiti presenter [11:07] sentenced to 3 years in prison for [11:10] supporting Iran. [11:12] Okay? [11:13] And And now, the Court of Appeals upheld [11:15] the verdict. She's been in detention [11:16] since March. And here's what's [11:18] interesting about this case. Now, And [11:19] this is because she she uh she was [11:21] posting social media posts that seemed [11:23] sympathetic to Iran. [11:26] The charges against her included, and [11:28] I'm quoting, "inciting sectarian [11:30] strife." That language is very specific. [11:33] The Kuwaiti government isn't just saying [11:35] that she expressed sympathy with the [11:37] enemy. Inciting sectarian strife. [11:40] They're framing her sympathy for Iran as [11:42] sectarian agitation. So, her last name [11:45] Dashti [11:47] is actually associated with Kuwait's [11:49] Ajam community, with which are who are [11:51] ethnic Persians who live in Kuwait. [11:54] They lived in Kuwait for generations and [11:55] they are predominantly Shiite. [11:58] Now, I haven't found any word explicitly [12:00] that it says that she is Shiite, but the [12:02] sectarian strife charge tells you that [12:05] the government is framing this not as [12:07] necessarily political dissent or [12:09] espionage, but as a Shiite public figure [12:12] stirring up her community against [12:15] Kuwait, the Sunni-aligned state. [12:18] It's a very deliberate accusation and it [12:20] points [12:21] to something bigger than the Dashti [12:22] case, right? Which brings you which [12:24] brings me to what I think is the most [12:25] important part of this whole thing. [12:27] So, I want to zoom out for a moment here [12:29] because citizen citizen citizenship [12:31] stripping and criminal prosecution [12:34] are things that we can see. They're [12:36] legal instruments. But underneath all of [12:38] this is something much bigger in the [12:40] long run. And this is why this story [12:43] kind of like matters in the big picture [12:44] of the war. [12:46] These Gulf governments are now looking [12:48] at [12:49] specific groups within their own [12:50] populations and treating them as a [12:52] potential fifth column. [12:54] Uh [12:55] based not based on actual espionage or [12:57] Iranian contacts, but based on their [12:59] family names, their ethnicity, who they [13:01] are. Look at Bahrain. The DW piece is [13:04] very clear about the structural reality [13:06] there. [13:07] The royal family is Sunni. The majority [13:09] of the population in Bahrain, just over [13:11] 50%, is Shiite. [13:13] And Iran, the enemy in this war, is of [13:16] course a Shiite theocracy. So, you have [13:18] this situation where they're looking at [13:20] their Shiite population as the problem. [13:23] So, what have we seen? We've seen 250 [13:25] arrests in a single month, 58 detained [13:28] clerics, religious leaders, [13:31] right? Not combatants, not spies. [13:33] Citizenship reviews are targeting anyone [13:35] who seems to be or is deemed to be [13:37] disloyal. [13:39] All right? And then you have [13:41] uh you know, and then you have this [13:42] source that we just saw, right? You have [13:45] this source [13:46] who who's you know, who's telling uh DW [13:49] that people of Persian or mixed [13:51] Arab-Persian descent are being swept up [13:53] regardless of their actual views just [13:54] because of who they are. [13:56] Um so it's not only Bahrain, right? I [13:59] mentioned Kuwait also. Bahrain, Kuwait, [14:02] um the Index on Censorship, that's a [14:05] thing, reported that filming the sky [14:07] after a missile strike uh became became [14:09] a prosecutable offense in Kuwait. [14:12] Journalists [14:13] journalists have been silenced. One [14:15] Kuwaiti journalist with over two decades [14:17] of experience told them under a [14:18] pseudonym because she feared persecution [14:21] that she had never seen censorship this [14:22] bad. [14:24] Um there was a this guy Ahmed Shihab [14:27] Eldin, a dual US-Kuwaiti journalist who [14:29] was detained after posting [14:32] uh a geolocated video of a jet crash, [14:34] right? He was eventually acquitted, but [14:36] even after he was acquitted, they took [14:38] away his citizenship. [14:40] Okay? So, let me put this plainly. What [14:42] we're watching is Gulf governments using [14:45] the Iran war to single out parts of [14:49] their populations and say, "You're not [14:50] really one of us." [14:52] And then they're [14:54] and then they're revoking citizenships, [14:56] imprisoning people, arresting people, [14:59] arresting clerics, journalists, [15:02] right? It This is all [15:04] This is all This is what's happening. [15:07] So, [15:08] the legal weapon is the citizenship [15:10] revocation, but the underlying logic is [15:13] you are not part of our society anymore [15:17] or never were. [15:19] Um now, let's look at what Iran is doing [15:21] with all this, cuz this is really [15:23] interesting. Okay, so let's put this [15:24] back on stage. [15:27] Let's put this Let's put these articles [15:29] back up here for you. [15:31] And we'll see something Iran is doing [15:33] that is so interesting. [15:34] Check this out. [15:36] Um [15:38] So [15:40] They're playing the same game from the [15:41] other side. [15:43] So this is Iranian state media, of [15:45] course. They reported that Iran is [15:46] moving towards offering citizenship to [15:48] foreign nationals who supported them [15:51] during the conflict. [15:53] Okay, so the [15:55] meaning [15:56] They're sending a message to Shiite [15:58] communities across the Gulf in Bahrain, [15:59] and Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. We see [16:02] you. We know what your governments are [16:03] doing to you. We have your back. [16:06] If they take your citizenship, we'll [16:07] give you one of ours. [16:09] Right? It's like they're recruiting or a [16:10] loyalty message. [16:13] Um [16:14] They're taking ownership of the Shiites [16:16] who are being persecuted in the in these [16:17] other countries. And this is the And [16:19] then there's the other side of Iran's [16:21] play. The DW piece reports that an [16:22] Iranian politician [16:24] threatened to strip diaspora Iranians of [16:27] citizenship if they're seen as [16:29] cooperating with hostile countries. So [16:30] you have Iranians living outside of Iran [16:32] who are part of the opposition. And now [16:34] they're being threatened with losing [16:36] their Iranian citizenship. So Iran is [16:38] simultaneously offering citizenship to [16:41] foreign supporters and threatening to [16:43] strip it from its own diaspora who are [16:46] against them. [16:47] So the Gulf states are using citizenship [16:49] as a weapon [16:52] um [16:54] you know, on all sides here. [16:56] Everyone's using it to enforce loyalty [16:58] along ethnic and sectarian lines. [17:02] Okay, so let's Let's close out this [17:04] video. Let me tell you why I think this [17:05] is one of the most significant long-term [17:07] stories to come out of the war. [17:09] And [17:10] And this is not about the human human [17:12] rights issue or the international law [17:14] issue. That's not what I'm concerned [17:15] with here. It has to do with something [17:17] much older and more consequential. The [17:18] Sunni-Shiite divide is over 1,400 years [17:22] old. It goes back to the earliest [17:23] decades of Islam. [17:25] A dispute over succession after the [17:27] death of Muhammad that split the Muslim [17:29] world, and they've never fully [17:30] reconciled. They've never really [17:32] reconciled. [17:33] And for most of these 1,400 years, [17:36] there's been rivalry, violence across [17:39] the Islamic world over this Sunni-Shiite [17:41] divide. And now the Gulf states, who [17:43] have mixed populations, have spent that [17:46] have spent decades trying to manage that [17:48] tension carefully. So now what are we [17:50] seeing? Bahrain with its Sunni royal [17:53] family that rules over a Shiite [17:55] majority, [17:57] they now have [17:59] you know, and during those decades of of [18:01] that rule, they've this this elaborate [18:03] system of co-opting certain Shiite [18:05] leaders and patronage and selective [18:07] repression. And Kuwait has its [18:09] significant Ajami and Shiite [18:11] communities. They also did the same [18:13] thing, managing the relationship with [18:14] these Shiites. And now, [18:17] you know, like [18:18] the unspoken deal for all those decades [18:20] was, "We're not going to bring up the [18:22] fact that you are heretics in Islam [18:25] following a different branch of Islam, [18:27] but just don't challenge our political [18:28] order." It was kind of an uneasy [18:30] relationship with their Shiite [18:32] communities. [18:33] And now what the war has done is it's [18:35] blown everything apart. Because the [18:38] government, you know, when the [18:39] government now arrests, uh, you know, 58 [18:42] clerics, right? Bahrain intensifies [18:44] crackdown on Shiites. Number of detained [18:46] clerics rises to 58. When they start [18:48] arresting Shiite clerics, when they're [18:51] stripping citizenship from people [18:53] because of their family names, uh, and [18:55] you have a state television presenter [18:56] who goes to prison for charge of [18:58] inciting sectarian strife for posting [19:01] pro-Iran stuff on her social media, [19:04] this is no longer about managing the [19:06] Sunni-Shiite tension. It's taking it [19:09] public. It's taking it official. It's [19:11] It's It's It's using [19:14] royal decrees and legal instruments to [19:17] to push out the Shiites. [19:19] And here's the thing about taking side [19:21] in a 1,400-year-old [19:23] conflict. [19:24] Um you're not going to walk away from it [19:26] when the war ends. The ceasefire will [19:28] come, the negotiations will conclude. At [19:30] some point this thing will be over. [19:33] But the Shiite majority in Bahrain will [19:35] still be there. [19:37] The Shiites and the Ajamis in Kuwait [19:38] will still be there. The clerics who [19:40] were detained are going to be released [19:42] eventually. [19:44] Right? And they're leaders. [19:47] Like the families that were stripped of [19:48] citizenship are going to remain in those [19:50] countries. They're stripped of [19:51] citizenship. They're stateless. [19:53] They've now lost their citizenship and [19:55] they're going to be resentful. And [19:56] they're going to look towards Tehran. [19:58] And Iran is playing it perfectly. That's [20:01] why they're covering all of this stuff [20:03] and they're doing stories about all this [20:04] stuff. [20:05] Iran's entire regional strategy has been [20:07] built on positioning itself as the [20:09] protector of the Shiites across the Arab [20:11] world. [20:12] From Lebanon to Iraq to Yemen to all [20:14] over the place. What the Gulf [20:16] governments are doing right now by [20:17] treating their own Shiite populations as [20:19] a fifth column is handing Iran [20:23] uh a very interesting like recruitment [20:25] narrative if Iran survives the if the [20:27] regime survives the war. So when the war [20:30] ends, [20:31] these Gulf states will have Shiite and [20:33] Persian descent populations that have [20:35] experienced mass arrests, citizenship [20:38] revocations, detention of their [20:40] religious leaders during this conflict. [20:42] And Iran will have spent months [20:44] documenting all of this stuff and [20:45] broadcasting it [20:47] and presenting itself as the protector [20:49] of the Shiites. So the Sunni-Shiite [20:51] fault line that the Gulf governments [20:53] have been like walking a tightrope uh [20:56] uh you know about for decades, trying to [20:59] keep it quiet, [21:02] is now is going to be in a different [21:04] place when this is over. Okay? That's [21:06] the war within the war that no one's [21:08] talking about. [21:09] Um all right, folks. All right, thanks. [21:11] I hope you found this interesting. [21:12] Please like, subscribe, share, all that [21:14] great stuff. [21:15] And I will try to keep bringing you [21:17] interesting stories uh that help you [21:20] understand the broader picture of what [21:21] we are experiencing in this war. God [21:23] bless.
