Emir of Bahrain rules out security cooperation with Iran

The emir of Bahrain, Shaykh Isa Bin Salman Al Khalifah, has said out the Gulf Cooperation Council states will not discuss security ties with Iran "until we have settled all current differences" , the Kuwaiti news agency Kuna reported on Saturday.

He was speaking as leaders of the six-nation GCC gathered in Kuwait for a summit meeting.

In a statement to the newspaper `Al Watan', Shaykh Isa said that "common security arrangements need an atmosphere of trust, tranquillity and total understanding." "This can be reached through the settlement of all the current differences between the partners," he said.

Shaykh Isa said Bahrain welcomed "any sign of rapprochement from Iran", but added that it expected any sign from Iran "to be followed by deeds" , and singled out Iran's dispute with the United Arab Emirates over the ownership of three islands in the Gulf.

On the issue of the Yemeni membership in the GCC, Shaykh Isa said that he believed that it was better to concentrate efforts on the strengthening of the GCC council first and to leave its expansion to later.

He also called for a united move by the Gulf states to combat terrorism by every possible means.

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.