The U.S. State Department recently issued a report, summarized here, that praised Bahrain’s 2006 counter terrorism law. The Bahraini section of the larger report, which focused on terrorism in the Middle East and North Africa, details that government’s tracking and apprehension of a Bahraini suspect last August. The report, however, also notes that the country’s Future Bank was sanctioned by the U.S. because it is partly owned by Iran’s Bank Melli.

This is an interesting set of circumstances — within the same report, the U.S. has both praised and penalized Bahrain for its anti-terrorism practices. If the U.S. expects cooperation with terrorism sanctions from countries like Bahrain, it needs to make certain that the right hand knows what the left is doing; that is, the U.S. must understand how a sanction might impact a country’s willingness to make the necessary efforts to further thwart terrorism in line with its ideals.