Gulf states call on UN to halt Iran 'interference'

Gulf Arab states on Sunday called on the international community and UN Security Council to "make flagrant Iranian interference and provocations" in Gulf affairs cease after unrest in Bahrain. Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, after a meeting in the Saudi capital Riyadh, called in a statement for "necessary measures" against the Islamic republic to prevent it from sowing regional discord. The six-nation GCC called on "the international community and the Security Council to take the necessary measures to make flagrant Iranian interference and provocations aimed at sowing discord and destruction" among GCC states. It said the GCC -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- "categorically rejects all foreign interference in its affairs... and invites the Iranian regime to stop its provocations." The statement also slammed "aggression" against Saudi diplomats in Iran. Earlier on Sunday, Riyadh threatened to recall its diplomats from Tehran unless they were better protected. "I hope we won't be obliged to withdraw our diplomatic mission from Tehran if Iran fails to take the necessary measures to protect it," deputy foreign minister Prince Turki bin Mohammed told reporters. Iranian students had demonstrated on Monday outside the Saudi embassy to condemn Riyadh's military intervention in Bahrain and the "murder" of Bahraini citizens, the official IRNA news agency had reported. Iran's Fars news agency, which is close to conservatives, had reported that "six to seven petrol bombs were hurled against the embassy" as students chanted slogans against the ruling Sunni dynasties in both Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. On Sunday, Prince Turki said: "Shiites in the Gulf are our brothers and have national rights under the umbrella of their loyalty (to their countries) and not to the outside." Iran has repeatedly condemned the dispatch of Saudi troops to Bahrain to support the Bahraini forces' crackdown on demonstrations there by Shiites who form the majority of the population of the country. Iran is predominantly a Shiite Muslim country.