• Manama refuses any talks with Tehran until diplomatic ties restored
• Senior Iranian official signals no deal will be signed at tomorrow’s meeting
• Pezeshkian says region doesn’t need US as ‘policeman’
MANAMA: Bahrain will not attend Monday’s meeting between Iran and Gulf states in Oman over the blockaded Strait of Hormuz, adding uncertainty to talks that a senior Iranian official has already said are unlikely to result in a signed agreement.
Bahrain’s foreign ministry said on Saturday that it would not take part in any collective meeting involving Iran before diplomatic relations between the two countries are restored.
Bahrain severed diplomatic ties with Iran in 2016, in step with Saudi Arabia. While Riyadh restored relations in 2023, Manama has yet to follow suit.
Citing attacks on infrastructure across the Gulf, the ministry said regional security and stability “cannot be preserved through a policy of appeasement”, and called for the strait to remain open without “discrimination, fees or permits”.
Meanwhile, a senior Iranian official has cautioned that Monday’s talks will be a chance to discuss issues including the Strait of Hormuz but is not expected to yield a signed agreement.
Iran has spent months negotiating with Oman, whose territorial waters also cover part of the strait, over a deal to govern shipping through the waterway. Oman has said its talks are backed by other Gulf Arab states.
Iranian officials have said Tehran wants any agreement to recognise its ability to impose fees on vessels using the passage, a demand Oman has rejected.
Iran has sought to formalise control over the waterway and has enforced a blockade throughout the war in the Middle East, which began when the US and Israel attacked the country in late February.
Before the conflict, roughly a fifth of the world’s oil supplies passed through the strait unimpeded.
Meanwhile, Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, held a string of high-level meetings on the sidelines of the Brics summit in New Delhi, including the first contact between Tehran and Abu Dhabi since the war in the Middle East began.
Pezeshkian met the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, on Saturday.
Iran’s embassy in India posted a photograph of the Pezeshkian-Al Nahyan meeting on social media. The two leaders discussed regional and international issues, de-escalation, stability and efforts to advance regional peace and development, Abu Dhabi’s media office said on X.
Also on the sidelines of the summit, Pezeshkian told Malaysia’s prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, that the Middle East did not need the United States to act as a “regional policeman”.
“We do not need a regional policeman,” he said, according to the Iranian presidency. “The territorial integrity and security of the region can only be guaran-teed by its main players and the countries that comprise it,” he added.
Published in Dawn, September 13th, 2026
