Gulf Cooperation Council states called on Iran on Sunday to condemn remarks by Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri, an adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, questioning Bahrain's sovereignty. GCC foreign and financial affairs ministers meeting in Riyadh said they “looked forward to the Iranian government condemning these inharmonious notes which increase tension ... and preventing their re-occurrence.” The GCC expressed “its displeasure and strongly condemned such statements regardless of their sources.” The GCC statement came as Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki sent a message to his Bahraini counterpart that “asserted his country's commitment to Bahrain's sovereignty and independence,” a statement on Bahrain's official news agency BNA said. “Reopening files of the past does not serve the interests of ... the region,” said Mottaki's message, which Iran's ambassador in Bahrain delivered to Foreign Minister Sheikh Khaled Bin Ahmad Al-Khalifa, the statement said. Earlier in the day, Bahrain's cabinet branded as “irresponsible” the comments by Nateq-Nouri Aid plan for Gaza The GCC ministers also decided on Sunday on a joint plan for Arab aid to rebuild the Gaza Strip. The plan is to put aid from Arab donors under the joint management of a committee made up of contributors and the Islamic Development Bank, the ministers said in a statement. Under the joint plan, an office may be opened in Gaza to ease project execution and entry of material needed for reconstruction. Details of the plan are to be outlined by a meeting on Saturday before an expected conference of international donors in Cairo on March 2.
