29 Mar 2024
Friday 21 December 2012 - 15:20
Story Code : 15033

Bahrain, Kuwait accuse Iran of 'interference'

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-AbdollahianTensions between Iran, Gulf states continue to flare amid inflammatory accusations by Tehran over 'toxic gas,' arms buys.
Tensions flared again between Iran and Gulf states Bahrain and Kuwait this week, leading to criticism from both Gulf countries that Tehran was interfering in their domestic affairs.

Comments that Irans deputy foreign minister made Tuesday sparked the latest diplomatic spat with Bahrain, after Hossein Amir-Abdollahian accused the Sunni-ruled island country of using toxic gas to suppress Shiite protesters.

Bahrains Foreign Ministry immediately rushed out a statement condemning Abdollahians remarks.

We are severely astonished at these false allegations, which are designed to cover up the disastrous situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the suffering of the Iranian people under the catastrophic and tragic deteriorating economic conditions, the statement said, according to a report in KuwaitsAl-Seyassahpolitical daily on Thursday.

The ministry said Abdollahians comments had encroached on Bahrains sovereignty.

Echoing the Foreign Ministrys comments, Bahrains Minister of State for Information Affairs Sameera Rajab told Saudi newspaperAl-Madinaon Thursday that Iran was lying to cover up the suffering of its own people.

Rajab said she considered Abdollahians remarks to be signs of direct intervention by Tehran in her countrys affairs.

Abdollahian knows he was lying, because he knows Bahrain very well and [that] we do not have hostile or racist policies, she said.

She accused radical groups of working to tarnish Bahrains image internationally.

Relations between Sunniruled Bahrain and Shiite Iran, always tense, deteriorated further in the wake of the Arab Spring. Tehran has angered Bahrain by supporting protests by the kingdoms majority Shiites, which began in February 2011. At least 50 people have been killed since the unrest began.

Bahrain is also the headquarters of the US Navys 5th Fleet, which Iran has threatened to attack in the event of a war with Israel.

In turn, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have accused Iran and its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah of aiding the Shiite-led uprisings as part of an effort to export its Islamic Revolution outside its borders.

In March 2011, Bahrain recalled its ambassador from Tehran in anger at what it said was blatant interference in its internal affairs. The ambassador returned to Tehran in August.

On Wednesday, Kuwait also criticized remarks that a senior Iranian military commander made regarding the Gulf states.

Maj.-Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi, an adviser to Irans Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and a former Revolutionary Guards commander, accused Gulf states this week of spending billions of dollars on arms to carry out a US and Israeli plot, according to Irans state media. However, Safavi did not elaborate on what that plot might entail.

We warn smaller countries that petrodollars cannot make them play key roles in the region, he warned.

In response, a senior Kuwaiti foreign ministry official said that Kuwait rejected any interference in its domestic affairs, Gulf News reported.

This latest spat comes after Iran denied a Kuwaiti media report in September that cited an Iranian lawmaker as saying Tehran had the right to interfere in Kuwait to protect the Shiites there.

Iran dismissed the report, which caused outrage among Kuwaiti lawmakers, as a politically- tainted and fabricated claim.

In the past, Kuwait and Iran have enjoyed reasonably close diplomatic and economic relations.

However, Kuwait, like other Gulf states, is concerned that Iran may pose a threat to its national security, believing that the Islamic Republic and Hezbollah are behind Shiite unrest in the Gulf.

In 2011, Kuwait sentenced three people two Iranians and a Kuwaiti to death for spying for Irans Revolutionary Guards Corps, a development that many in the Gulf saw as evidence of Irans covert operations in the region.

By Jerusalem Post

 

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