DUBAI, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's Shi'ite clerics, seeking to distance themselves from Shi'ite-led protests in the Sunni-ruled monarchy, have promised the authorities to use their influence to prevent any further clashes in a volatile eastern province.
Saudi Arabia has said the clashes on Monday night that injured 14 people including 11 policemen in the oil-rich Eastern province were the work of an unnamed foreign power -- usually code for its rival Iran.
The Eastern Province is home to more than two million Shi'ites, a minority which has long complained of second class status in the absolute monarchy dominated by a rigid form of Sunni Islam, Wahhabism.
"An agreement has been reached with the authorities to contain the situation, as the protests were limited to one village and not widespread," Tawfiq al-Saif, a leading Shi'ite intellectual in the kingdom, told Reuters.
During the Arab uprisings earlier this year, the world's top oil exporter moved swiftly to suppress protests in the Eastern Province in February and March, arresting more than 100 people.
The kingdom's Interior Ministry on Tuesday vowed to use "an iron fist" to end the latest protests among its Shi'ite minority.
"The foreign power the government wants to blame is Iran, but I don't believe that Iran had anything to do with the protests," said Saif.
A number of leading Shi'ite clerics including Sheikh Abdullah Khunaizi have condemned the protests and pledged loyalty to King Abdullah's rule, Kamil Al Khitti, an activist and nephew of Sheikh Abdullah told Reuters.
A group of clerics led by Khunaizi on Tuesday met the Eastern Province governor Prince Mohammed bin Fahd, a son of the former King Fahd, to pledge their loyalty to the kingdom and distance themselves from the protesters.
"In the statement that was issued by the ministry of interior had threats against the group of people who started the protests, so this message to the king is to say that we are not backing the group and are loyal to the country's rulers," he said.
Saif said the only way to resolve any conflict in the long term would be to grant Shi'ites political and civil rights.
"Discrimination against us is state policy, the government has opened the chance for dialogue on these issues to resolve problems."
The unrest on Monday led to the arrest of more than half a dozen protesters who are now awaiting a court trial, an official told Reuters.
The Saudi embassy in London on Thursday said the government had used rubber bullets to disperse protesters who it said had attacked a police station using petrol bombs and firearms smuggled into the country.
In an emailed message late Wednesday, an exiled activist with close links to the Shi'ite community in the Eastern Province said the situation had calmed.
"There is no large security presence and that is maybe due to private arrangements with the government that protest will stop if they do not escalate the situation," said Ali Al Ahmed, a dissident based in Washington. (Reporting by Amena Bakr; Editing by Angus McDowall/Maria Golovnina)
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