Gulf rulers tell Iran keep out, Tehran says beware

Foreign ministers of the GCC said they were "deeply worried about continuing Iranian meddling".

RIYADH: Arab states of the Gulf accused Iran of meddling in Bahrain and Kuwait, drawing a warning from a senior official in Tehran on Monday for pro-US monarchs to focus instead on their peoples' demands.

Foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), in a statement issued late on Sunday after a meeting in Riyadh, said they were "deeply worried about continuing Iranian meddling".

The GCC, grouping Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia with Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, accused Shia Iran of plotting against the security of its Sunni monarchies and of fanning confessional discord.

Tehran was "violating the sovereignty" of members of the regional grouping, they said.

The GCC meeting came after the Iranian parliament's foreign affairs and national security committee said on Thursday that "Saudi Arabia should know it is better not to play with fire in the sensitive region of the Persian Gulf".

Saudi Arabia led a joint Gulf force which was deployed in Bahrain last month, enabling authorities to quell a month-long, Shia-led protest demanding democratic reforms in the kingdom.

The Gulf heavyweight on Sunday slammed what it described as an "irresponsible" Iranian statement full of "void allegations and blatant offense against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia".

The statement from Iran, which has come out in support of the so-called "Arab Spring" of protests, "fuels sectarianism", it said.

In Tehran, Kazem Jalali, spokesman for Iran's hardline foreign affairs committee, said on Monday the Gulf states would be better advised to address the grievances of their peoples as anti-regime protests sweep the Arab world.

"Iran will never interfere in the internal affairs of its neighbours," he was quoted as saying by Iran's news agency IRNA. The GCC countries had "better reconsider their own actions" rather than issuing "emotional statements".

The Arab petromonarchies "are aware that their dependency on America and their cowardly behaviour towards the Zionist regime is a form of humiliation that they are imposing on their own people", he said.

The GCC ministers at the Riyadh meeting also condemned "Iran's interference in Bahrain's internal affairs, in violation of international conventions and rules of good neighbourliness".

The deployment of the GCC's Peninsula Shield force in Bahrain at the request of authorities in Manama was legitimate and complied with the terms of a joint defence agreement between the group's members.

The ministers criticised as "irresponsible" the statement from Iran's parliamentary committee that called for the withdrawal of Saudi forces from its small neighbour Bahrain.

Iran must "stop these hostile policies and respect the rules of good neighbourliness so as to preserve the security and stability in this region which is key for the entire world", the ministers said.

Last Thursday, Kuwait announced it was expelling an unspecified number of Iranian diplomats for alleged links to a spy ring working for Tehran. The Islamic republic has denied any link to the cell.

Iran's foreign ministry said on Sunday that the tension between Tehran and its Arab neighbours was the result of a "Western and Zionist conspiracy" aimed at "sowing discord between Islamic countries".

"We advise regional governments to heed the demands of their people in order to stop such conspiracies," said ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast.