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A Palace Rift in Persian Gulf Bedevils Key U.S. Navy Base
(Wall Street Journal) Charles Levinson - A widening split within Bahrain's royal family is empowering anti-American Sunni Islamists and eroding American influence where the U.S. maintains its primary naval base in the region. The feud pits the king, whose predecessors nurtured Western ties for decades, against a hereditary line within the royal family known as the Khawalids, whose power base includes the hard-line Islamist movement. There is concern among both palace insiders and Western observers that the current royal succession line could eventually be shuffled in favor of the Khawalids. Retired U.S. Navy Admiral Dennis C. Blair, former Director of National Intelligence and Commander in Chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, this month urged the Pentagon to move the Fifth Fleet's headquarters out of Bahrain.