MANAMA: Bahrain has warned Iran to stop interfering in its internal affairs while affirming its support for a union between the six nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Foreign Minister Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmad Al-Khalifa made the remarks a day after Iran called on its people to protest against the union that
Gulf officials say will start with Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
“The union... is a demand by the people of the GCC,” Sheikh Khaled said according to the BNA news agency, adding that Bahrain “rejects Iranian interference in the affairs of the kingdom.”
The minister said that “every once in a while, we hear Tehran’s claims that Bahrain is the 14th governorate” of Iran and that Bahrainis want to “return to the motherland. “This meddling and this Iranian stance is not just directed against Bahrain, but against everybody” in the Gulf bloc.
The foreign minister also accused Iran of stoking tensions with its Arab neighbors, warning Iran would suffer the “consequences of these interventions.”
In another development, a confidential report on Iran sanctions-busting, seen by Reuters, said Syria remains the top destination for Iranian arms shipments in violation of a UN Security Council ban on weapons exports by Tehran.
News of the panel's report came as Tehran and the UN International Atomic Energy Agency try narrow their differences on how to tackle concerns over Iran's atomic program, and as Iran prepares for talks with the five permanent council members and Germany in Iraq.
