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Kuwait Reveals New Message from Iran to Enhance Relations with GCC | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Kuwait’s Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Al-Jarallah speaking at a ceremony. KUNA


Kuwait – A message from Iran was delivered by its ambassador to Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah and it represents a new episode in the series of enhancing intentions carried out by Iranian government to normalize its relations with Gulf States, according to a prominent Kuwaiti official.

“We always stress that the Iranian interference must come to an end and we insist that our dialogue with Tehran must be based on the non-existence of any Iranian interference in the domestic affairs of our countries,” Deputy Foreign Minister Khalid al-Jarallah said.

The Deputy Minister was talking to reporters on the sideline of the meeting of the international anti-ISIS coalition in Kuwait on Wednesday.

Emir of Kuwait sent in January the offer to Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani, and Tehran said that it welcomed the idea of the dialogue.

“We have received the Iranian response and it is the center of great attention and follow-up by the Kuwaiti authorities,” Jarallah told the reporters.

Kuwait’s foreign minister paid a rare visit to Tehran this January, and he delivered a message from the emir to Rouhani, describing a “basis of dialogue” between Gulf Arab states and Iran.

Iran’s state news agency IRNA said Rouhani replied to the message in the letter delivered by Iran’s ambassador on Monday.

Following the Kuwaiti foreign minister’s Tehran trip, President Rouhani made a short visit to Kuwait and Oman in February on his first visit to the Gulf States since taking power in 2013.

That visit and the message delivered on Monday are seen as part of attempts at potential reconciliation between Iran and certain Arab countries, whose relations have recently soured over the Syrian and Yemeni conflicts as well as other issue.

Asked about reported deployment of some 1,000 US troops in Kuwait as part of the war against ISIS, Jarallah said that efforts by the United States and other coalition States are ongoing and will not stop in facing these organizations.