درع الجزيرة
In response to the deployment of the GCC troops in Bahrain. Isa Qassim, criticised al-Khalifa's claims that the mobilisation of GCC troops is a broader effort to ensure regional stability, rather than what Qassim considers to be Sunni entrenchment and a veiled challenge to Shia representation in the government. On 18 March he said the Peninsula Shield Force had "made a big mistake" and he "would have been proud" if it instead went "to help our brothers in Gaza".