Manama: Iran has sought Kuwait’s help to improve its relations with other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and ease the tension with them, a Kuwaiti daily has said.

Gulf diplomats said that the messages being conveyed by Kuwaiti Interior Minister Shaikh Mohammad Al Khalid to GCC leaders included the wish by Iran’s leaders to start a new chapter in its relations with the Gulf countries based on the principle of “settling pending issues through a quiet dialogue,” Al Rai reported on Saturday.

The GCC comprises Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Gulf sources said that Mahmoud Alavi, the Iranian minister of intelligence, recently visited Kuwait and presented the leaders a written message from President Hassan Rouhani on relations with the Gulf and on an earnest desire to reach a settlement of the regional issues by the people of the region and without any foreign interference.

According to the sources, Kuwait told the Iranian official that his country should present some confidence-building measures to the Gulf states.

Kuwait highlighted Iran’s interference in Bahrain and Yemen and its negative attitudes towards Saudi Arabia as well as the busting of armed networks and cells in several GCC countries, including Kuwait.

Kuwait also presented its views on Iran’s roles in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon and on the escalation in the discourse by the Iran-controlled militia Hezbollah against Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries and its strong influence on the Lebanese government that pushed Beirut to adopt stances that were not in line with the Arab positions. Hezbollah has also stalled the election of a Lebanese president, Kuwait said.

During the meeting in Kuwait City, Iran referred to the “hostile” speeches on different levels in the Gulf institutions, particularly the media and politics.

Tehran said that Gulf states supported specific factions in Iraq and Syria, which contributed to deepening extremism and preventing the consolidation of Islamic cohesion.

However, Kuwait refuted the Iranian claims, insisting that the GCC countries have never interfered in the domestic affairs of other countries and have never tried to start fires anywhere in order to benefit from them politically, the sources added.

Kuwait said the GCC states did not have a revolution to export and had no interest in seeing any Islamic or social divisions, arguing that supporting stability and peace and putting out fires were the cores of the GCC policies and explaining that some media or political matters could happen as a reaction to the Iranian practices on the ground.

Kuwait told the GCC official that one of Iran’s first confidence-building measures would be to lift its custodianship of social components (Shiites) in Gulf and Arab countries.

A Lebanese Shiite is an Arab Lebanese, the Saudi Shiite is an Arab Saudi, and the Kuwaiti Shiite is a Arab Kuwaiti, Kuwait said. “Claiming otherwise is a blatant violation of the principle of citizenship and incites divisions and clashes with the other components of the society,” Kuwait reportedly said.

According to the source, each of the GCC states is working on its responses to the Iranian move and is preparing the confidence-building measures it is expecting “In order to ensure that the past experiences in which the Iranian deeds on the ground were totally different from their words.”