Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said Friday that he hoped "misunderstandings" with Saudi Arabia could be resolved after a war of words erupted over its military intervention in Bahrain.
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said Friday that he hoped
"misunderstandings" with
Saudi
Arabia
could be resolved after a war
of words erupted over its military intervention in
Bahrain
.
Saleh said that
Iran
respected the sovereignty of Sunni-ruled Shiite-majority
Bahrain
and
hoped that a national dialogue launched by King Hamad after the March crackdown
on Shiite-led protests would bear fruit.
"We have no particular problem with
Saudi
Arabia
and we regard it as an
important country in the region that has influence in international
affairs," Salehi said in an interview with the official IRNA news agency.
"We have had friendly relations with
Saudi
Arabia
for a long time. After recent
events in the region there were differences of analysis and
interpretation," he said without elaborating.
"I believe these misunderstandings can be resolved. I hope that we will
find an acceptable way to continue consultations between our two
countries."
Salehi's overture to
Saudi Arabia
came
after a sharp downturn in relations in the months since Saudi-led troops
intervened to help
Bahrain
's
Sunni rulers put down the Shiite-led protests.
Several Iranian officials and Shiite clerics have spoken out against the
intervention, drawing an angry response from Gulf Arab states.
Salehi insisted that
Iran
"respects the national sovereignty and independence of
Bahrain
and
wants peace, stability and security in Bahrain."
"We think that the
Bahrain
issue
needs to be settled between Bahrainis," he said.
"We have political relations with the government of
Bahrain
and
we regard as positive the decision by the king of
Bahrain
to
launch a dialogue with the people. We hope that this dialogue will allow a
solution to be found."
Iran received a formal protest note from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation
Council Monday after senior Iranian cleric Ayatollah Ahmed Janati used a sermon
at the main weekly prayers in Tehran July 8 to criticize the Bahrain crackdown
and dismiss the dialogue as a "ploy."
Janati said that the protesters in
Bahrain
had
done nothing more than call for "one person, one vote," and hit out
at the prosecution of doctors and academics for their part in the protests.
GCC secretary general Abdullatif Zayani said Janati's comments were
"provocative and false," and constituted "blatant and
unacceptable interference" in
Bahrain
's
internal affairs.
In a major blow to the national dialogue,
Bahrain
's
main Shiite opposition bloc, the Islamic National Accord Association, or
Al-Wefaq, which took a majority of the vote in the last parliamentary
elections, said Sunday that it was pulling out, saying the talks were not aimed
at achieving serious results.
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