"Iran has had claims in the past on Bahrain," Ambassador Houda Nonoo told reporters this week in Washington. "The latest was on their 30th anniversary in February 2009, where they mentioned Bahrain as the 14th province. Very similar to (Saddam Hussein's) Iraq mentioning Kuwait as their 19th province."

"We're a small country, we're just across the pond," she said, explaining that Bahrain is "just 26 miles away from Bushehr," the Iranian port city that hosts one of the nuclear program's key installations. "If Iran has [a nuclear] capability, nobody is going to be able to stop them."

Nonoo, 46, is believed to be the Arab world's first Jewish ambassador. She served as a legislator in Bahrain's 40-member Shoura Council for three years and is head of the Bahrain Human Rights Watch.

Though the US, the UN Security Council and the European Union have imposed a series of sanctions on Iran recently, Nonoo was not optimistic of its success. "The sanctions never had a chance of working because they've placed so many sanctions before, and they've never worked. Why was this one going to be any different?"

Commenting on the sanctions in a recent interview, Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, said: ""I think they should go further, but I at least am pleased that they took this step."

Still, he echoed Nonoo's doubts that the sanctions would achieve their ultimate objective.

"The reality is that it may be too late to prevent the Iranians from acquiring nuclear weapons," Sen. McCain said. "Now, I'm not saying we should quit trying. I'm not saying we shouldn't try to take every measure that we can. But some of these measures, I think, could have been far more effective if we'd have taken them some years ago — and I think that's the opinion of most experts."

Bahrain is a close US ally but has no diplomatic relations with Israel.