Saudi Gazette report RIYADH – Abdullatif Al-Zayani, Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), has condemned remarks by Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Bahrain and its people during a recent conference in Iran. Al-Zayani dismissed the statements Khamenei made at the “Muslim Scholars and Islamic Awakening” held in Iran recently as “reprehensible fallacies” and a “blatant interference” in the internal affairs of Bahrain. He said the statements were in breach of the principles of the religion of Islam and good neighborliness, as well as the international law. “The situation in Bahrain is an internal affair, and no other country, including Iran, has the right to interfere in it,” Al-Zayani said. “The free Bahraini people are fully capable of addressing their problems by themselves, away from the blatant interference of Iran, which has always sought to sow seeds of division among the Bahraini people,” he added. Al-Zayani expressed regret over the Iranian officials' raising of the slogan of “Islamic Awakening” at a time when many countries in the region suffer from the policies of their regime based on spreading “obnoxious sectarian thought, setting up terror and espionage cells, fueling tension and undermining security.” The GCC secretary general expressed surprise at Khamenei's remarks about injustice, deprivation and rights, while his own people, as the whole world knows, are reeling under tragic situations in all these areas. “In Iran, minorities are oppressed, marginalized and deprived of basic human rights guaranteed by all monotheistic religions and international norms,” he said, while adding that “Khamenei, at the same time, does not hesitate to provide all kinds of support for a regime that kills its own people using all kinds of deadly weapons.” He was referring to Iran's support for the Syrian regime of President Bashar Al-Assad.
