[Arab News] Bahrain has expelled the Iranian charge d'affaires, a diplomatic source said on Sunday, in another sign of rising tensions between the island kingdom and non-Arab Iran."He was asked to leave. The Iranian ambassador left earlier. It's due to the tensions between the two countries," the source said, referring to Iran's objections to Bahrain's invitation of troops from Gulf neighbors to quell a month of protests. "Bahraini authorities said he had contacts with some (opposition) groups," the source added.
The main opposition groups, meanwhile, eased conditions for talks to end the crisis. Led by the largest opposition party Wefaq, opposition groups have called on security forces to free all those jugged in the wake of a month of protests, end their crackdown and ask Gulf troops to leave so talks could begin.
"We will not back down under threat and we will not come to talks with guns pointed at our heads," said Mattar Ibrahim Mattar, a Wefaq MP until the bloc withdrew from Parliament a few weeks ago.
But main opposition groups appeared to retreat from much more ambitious conditions they set last week for talks, including creation of a government not dominated by royals and establishment of an elected council to redraft the constitution.
Sunday was the first working day after a week that saw closures of schools and universities to prevent outbreaks of sectarian festivities that had been erupting almost daily.
An uneasy calm spread through the city as most Bahrainis went back to work and there were fewer checkpoints in the streets, though helicopters buzzed over trouble prone areas.
Over 2,000 mourners in the village of Sitra, pumping their fists and shouting "Down with the regime" joined the third funeral procession in as many days on Sunday. Issa Radhi, 47, was one of four protesters killed in last week's crackdown.
He went missing after a protest in Sitra on Wednesday and police called his family on Saturday to say they found his body. His brother said he was badly beaten, with birdshot in his legs.
"We bury him today but we won't bury the right to avenge his death," his brother Khalil Radhi said.
Hours after Radhi's funeral, Wefaq said a man taken away by security forces two days ago was dead. It said police had told Abdulrusul Hajair's family to collect his body from hospital.
A former Wefaq parliamentarian said some 100 people had gone missing in the crackdown, speaking at a small 15-minute protest in front of the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society building in Manama.