MANAMA: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has sent a message to Bahrain’s King Hamad in an effort to smooth relations, state media said yesterday, after an Iranian official questioned the island nation’s sovereignty.
The message was discussed during a meeting between King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa and Iran’s Minister of Interior Sadeq Mahsouli in Manama on Monday, Bahrain News Agency said.
Ahmadinejad said he would “not allow anyone who does not have good intentions for both countries to violate these good brotherly relations,” it reported.
According to media reports, Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri, an adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said earlier this month that Iran had sovereignty over the kingdom.
Bahrain halted talks with Iran over natural gas imports over the reported comments and Bahrain’s foreign minister summoned the Iranian ambassador to protest earlier in February. “I would like to confirm that the Islamic Republic of Iran considers the security of Bahrain and the security of all countries in the region as part and parcel of its own security and stability,” Mahsouli said yesterday in Manama.
Gulf Arab states this week called on Iran to condemn the remarks at a foreign ministers meeting in Riyadh on Sunday. Iran said on Monday the reports on the official’s remarks had been misunderstood and misinterpreted. Iran has denied having claims over Bahrain but the tensions have underscored the suspicions between Gulf nations and Iran.
Relations between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Iran have also strained since Iran installed maritime offices on a disputed island in the strategic Gulf shipping lanes last year.
Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs, located near key shipping lanes in the Gulf, are controlled by Iran but claimed by the UAE with broad Arab support.
“Iran has been acting as an occupying force which is impermissible with Islam and international law,” said Abdul-Rahman Al-Attiyah, secretary-general of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) that includes six Gulf Arab countries.
Al-Attiyah, made the comments in Bahrain after Iran’s interior minister reaffirmed Tehran’s right to the islands. “Despite the positive position of the GCC toward Iran, that position is met many times by Iranian officials through a stance that swings unjustifiably between unfriendly and aggressive,” Al-Attiyah told the opening session of the second Bahrain Security Forum and Exhibition.
Al-Attiyah also cited repeated statements by Iranian officials threatening the safety and security of the Gulf states in the case of an attack on Iran by the United States. He called on Iran to either start direct talks with the UAE on the matter or refer the issue to international arbitration courts.
“To redress these hostile declarations and irresponsible policies of Iran (it needs) to take clear positions at the highest level of leadership in Iran coupled with procedures to respect sovereignty (of other countries)” he said.
