Manama: Bahrain has denied a media report that it reviewed an alleged Iranian threat to Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries with Egypt.
"The report about King Hamad Bin Eisa Al Khalifa, discussing with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Iranian power in the Gulf states, is not true," Nabeel Al Hamer, media advisor to King Hamad, said. "What was discussed between the two leaders on the Iranian issue was the agreement between Iran and the international community regarding the assurances presented by Tehran to avoid any possible environmental pollution related to its nuclear programme,” the advisor said in a statement carried by the official Bahrain News Agency (BNA).
King Hamad, on Thursday, made a one-day visit to Cairo for talks with the Egyptian leader.
On Friday, a pan-Arab newspaper said that King Hamad and Mubarak discussed, "Arab and regional issues, at a meeting in Cairo, the situation in Iraq and developments in Lebanon. Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and Afghanistan, and the increasing Iranian influence in several Gulf countries following the unveiling by Bahrain of the existence of a network of 250 people who had confessed that they worked for Iran."
A Kuwaiti newspaper 10 days ago, quoting unnamed sources, said that Bahrain shared a report with Kuwait and other Gulf states about the dismantling of a network of people ready to target local and foreign interests in the region in case Iran was attacked.
Last week, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, Iran's ambassador to Bahrain, told Bahraini daily Al Wasat that his country had, "good and steadily improving relations" with the region and that it did not need sleeper cells or had to operate underground or engage in clandestine action.
