No organized opposition in Bahrain: King Hamad 

(MENAFN - Arab News) King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa of Bahrain has accused his opponents of chanting in support of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In an interview with Germany's Der Spiegel magazine, he said: "It's just a case of manners. But when they shout 'Down with the king and up with Khamenei' that's a problem for national unity."

"In a sense there is no 'opposition' in Bahrain, as the phrase implies one unified block with the same views," Hamad said in the extracts. "Such a phrase is not in our constitution, unlike say the UK. We only have people with different views, and that's okay."

Security forces fired tear gas and stun grenades at protesters trying to occupy a landmark square in the nation's capital on Monday ahead of the one-year anniversary of the uprising. Traffic came to a standstill on the highway. Protesters fled into nearby villages to regroup and march back to confront police.

A top US lawman hired by Bahrain to help clean up its security practices said the government was serious about reforms and but youth violence was posing obstacles. Opposition parties often hold authorized marches and rallies but youth activists call their own protests that usually end in clashes with police.

"There has been a huge increase in the use of Molotov cocktails (petrol bombs). There were five or six dozen flung in Sitra the other week. Police are responding to assaults they find themselves in," said John Timoney, who as Miami police chief in 2003-10 was credited as a "tough cop" who cut crime.