Bahrain on Sunday sought to "clarify" comments made last week by its U.S. ambassador about the threat a nuclear-armed Iran would pose to the tiny island kingdom.
In an interview with The Washington Times, Ambassador Houda Nonoo said, "We're a small country. We are just across the pond. It's a small gulf — we are just 26 miles away from Bushehr [an Iranian nuclear site]. So if Iran becomes nuclear, then it will become an issue."
She said her fears derived in part from the fact that "Iran has had claims in the past on Bahrain."
"The latest claim was on their 30th anniversary in February 2009, where they mentioned Bahrain as the 14th province," Ms. Nonoo said. "Very similar to [Saddam Hussein's] Iraq mentioning Kuwait as their 19th province. We don't want to go down that way. Bahrain has to be independent. We don't want to have anybody else taking over.… If Iran has [a nuclear] capability, nobody is going to be able to stop them."
She also cast doubt on the efficacy of current sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, saying they "never had a chance of working."
In a statement posted on the state-run Bahrain News Agency, the Foreign Ministry said: "It appears that [the ambassador's comments] may have been inaccurately reported, or have been misinterpreted or misunderstood, and the ministry is pleased to further develop and place [them] in context."
Ms. Nonoo could not be reached for comment Monday.
The Foreign Ministry statement, which was reported by Press TV and Fars News Agency, two Iranian state-controlled media outlets, expanded on her remarks without explicitly denying them.
"Bahrain has consistently made clear its support for the right of all states to the peaceful civilian use of nuclear energy, transparently and in accordance with the relevant international framework and safeguards," the statement said. "Bahrain has made clear on a number of occasions that the Islamic Republic of Iran is no exception to this right."
"At the same time, Bahrain has also called on Iran to demonstrate full transparency and co-operation with the international community, including the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency], to address any concerns over its nuclear program. The Ambassador's remarks were not intended to, and did not, deviate or detract from this consistently established position."
© Copyright 2010 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.
