Gulf Arabs to discuss nuclear fears with Iran

"The team will reiterate the need for Iran to completely cooperate with the international community and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)," Sheikh Mohammad al-Salem al-Sabah told a joint news conference with visiting German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

"The Gulf's concerns are authentic, well-known and were clearly expressed at the Abu Dhabi summit last year and the consultative meeting in Riyadh," he added.

A meeting of U.S.-allied Gulf Arab leaders in Riyadh earlier this month called on Iran to do more to show it was not trying to obtain an atom bomb.

Sheikh Mohhamad did not say when the delegation of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) -- a political and economic alliance that also comprises Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar -- would go to Tehran.

"The team ... is part of the GCC's efforts to deal with this issue through the process of working and talking with our friends in Tehran about the importance of the issue."

Steinmeier, on a five-day Gulf tour, said the international community has yet to be convinced about Iran's nuclear ambitions.

"Up till now the picture is not yet clear whether this programmme is only for civilian purposes or not," he said.

"We need to know that from a clear position and so does the IAEA and the international community needs clarification," he said.

In Riyadh, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said the kingdom backs efforts aimed at using diplomacy to make the Middle East and the Gulf free of weapons of mass destruction.

"We are keen to find diplomatic solutions, we have not run out of diplomatic options yet," he told a joint news conference with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

But "any effort to get rid the region of weapons of mass destruction must not exclude Israel," he said.

Lavrov also said the dispute over Iran had to be resolved through peaceful means. "We also back Saudi Arabia's position as to focusing on the strategic implementation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty throughout the region," he said.

Israel is widely believed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal but it neither confirms nor denies that.

(Additional reporting by Souhail Karam in Riyadh)

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