Bahrain Mirror: Bahrain's Minister of Foreign Affairs Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa said it was still premature to assess the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, yet he pointed out that the deal "didn't cover all the sources of tensions with Iran, for it only focused on the nuclear issue without any of its ramifications," considering that Tehran has "tense relations" with Bahrain.

In an interview with the Saudi Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, the Bahraini FM stressed that Iran is fighting against them with "Kalashnikovs, bombs and powerful explosive C4," adding that "the amount of explosive material smuggled into Bahrain was sufficient to obliterate Manama from existence."

"First, Tehran must be fully committed to meeting its requirements. Second, there must be parallel action to repair Iran's ties with its neighbors," he said.

He further stated that "If we took the issue of imported terrorism and the training of terrorists and extremists, then we will see that we won't gain anything from the deal."

The FM also reiterated his trust in the United States, considering it "an ally and friend that wasn't born today or yesterday." "Our relationship with it goes back to 1893," he added.

He also criticized what he described as "double standards" by Iran. According to him, "the source of the problem is that we listen to threats made by the Revolutionary Guard and the leader of the Iranian revolution Khamenei when talking about the countries of the region, and then the Iranian FM Mohammad Javad Zarif comes with a kind smile on his face, telling us to have a dialogue and ignore all these statements."

The Bahraini FM also called on Iran "to follow a moderate policy that contributes to finding solutions to the outstanding problems and halt its involvement in the Arab Shiites and Arab states."

However, the Foreign Minister went on to say: "At the end of the day, we cannot remain at an ongoing conflict with a country that is only 150 kilometers away from us. It is in our benefit to have good relations with Iran. In any case, each of us can only defend oneself, We, in Bahrain, have never attacked anyone. We are always in a state of counter reaction and self defense ."

Arabic Issue