Bahraini official denies news of GCC-Iran meet

Manama

Vice Chairman of Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and National Security Jamal Bu Hassan said that the current situation is not favourable for the conference between Iran and the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries to iron out the entire problems in one go.

“Iran will have to cover a long way to reach the stage to sit with the GCC countries,” he remarked referring to the reports appeared in some sections of Iranian and Gulf media that there was a scheduled meeting between the GCC countries and Iran on September 22.

The reports had quoted the Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossain Amir-Abdollahian saying, “The initiative to hold a meeting between Iran and GCC came from Qatar and Oman.”

Hassan said that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had already denied such reports. Being the representative of Bahrain he also denied the possibility of such a conference.

He said that Iran had created a lot of mess in the form of bomb blasts in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. “Now they have done the same in Sitra. It’s not easy to clear all this mess in a single blow.”

“Iran will have to give guarantees that it respects all the international laws and agreements,” he replied to a query. “To show its interest and seriousness Iran will have to hand over all the Bahraini criminals taking refuge in Iran back to Bahrain.”

“To cleanse its dirty hands, Iran will have to stop supporting the non-state elements in Bahrain and Yemen and also to keep its hands away from organisations like Hezbollah,” he suggested. “Change your mindset if you want to change the affairs of the region,” Bu Hassan urged the Iranian leaders.