Bahrain Mirror: Bahrain's Foreign Affairs Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa delivered an address on Friday (October 2, 2015) at the United Nations General Assembly during its 70th session held in the UN headquarters in New York.

At the beginning of his speech, the Foreign Minister deplored the false allegations made by the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Sheikh Hassan Rouhani, about the Mina stampede incident, in his statement before the General Assembly, and rejected "any belittling of Saudi Arabia's effort" in organizing the pilgrimage.

He also spoke of the challenges the region is facing in combating terrorism, accusing Iran of exploiting "the extremist groups, providing safe haven for fugitives, opening training camps for terrorist groups and smuggling arms and explosives, as has happened to my country where citizens, expatriates and security personnel protecting them and the nation at large have been targets of murder and criminal acts that claimed 16 lives of security personnel and injured 3000."

"The dangerous criminal acts go even further; barely two days ago, the security authorities in the Kingdom of Bahrain discovered a cache of locally made bombs in the heart of a densely populated area including large quantities, that amount to 1.5 tons, of highly explosive material destined for use in the manufacturing of such potent explosives as C4, RDX and TNT, together with explosive chemical substances and a number of explosive devices ready for use, automatic weapons and guns, hand grenades and quantities of ammunitions and wireless equipment," he added.

The FM went on to say that "Iran would be better advised not to squander the resources of its people to promote its vested interests but rather to use them to achieve development and progress and to build bridges with its neighbors, so that all may live together in peace. However, Iran responded in an evil manner and we were left with no option but to recall the Kingdom's ambassador accredited to Iran, and declare the charge d'affaires of the Iranian Embassy persona non grata as part of the measures the Kingdom is taking to protect its people and interests."

Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa reiterated in his speech his country's support for the war on Yemen which, according to the United Nations, left more than 4,500 citizens killed, considering "what the GCC is doing in Yemen led by Saudi Arabia is "to help the brotherly people of Yemen in the face of rebel groups backed by Iran that turned their back on their commitments and attacked state institutions," calling on Iran to put an end to its intervention in Iraq.

As for the nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1, the FM stated that "it does not eliminate all sources of tension resulting from Iran's attitude towards the countries of the region. It covers some future issues but does not touch on the real problems that we face today, since Iran still attempts to destabilize the security and stability of this region."

Arabic Issue