TEHRAN – Hossein Amir Abdollahian, a senior foreign policy advisor to the Iranian parliament speaker, has strongly criticized Bahrain for hosting an anti-Iran security conference attended by Israel.

“Manama Sec. Conference with the participation of illegitimate Israeli regime will help ending the AlKhalifa regime,” Amir Abdollahian said in his Twitter account on Tuesday. 

“It needs to review its short history & think abt future of region more rationally. Definetely, the Al-Khalifa’s Zionist Regime has no place in the future of region,” he added.

On Monday, Reuters reported that a senior Israeli official attended the maritime security conference in Bahrain.

Israeli Foreign Ministry official Dana Benvenisti, head of its counter-terrorism department, attended the Manama gathering in a rare visit by an Israeli official to Bahrain.

“Aviation and maritime security are at top of the policy agenda in the region,” Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa told the opening of the Maritime and Aviation Security Working Group.

The maritime workshop being held in Manama stems from a Middle East conference held in Warsaw in February that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the time called a “historical turning point” for an alliance against Tehran.

Tensions have risen in the region since U.S. President Donald Trump last year withdrew the United States from a 2015 deal between world powers and Iran under which Tehran agreed to curbs on its nuclear program in return for the lifting of sanctions.

Washington has since reimposed rounds of sanctions meant to strangle Iran’s vital oil exports, and Tehran in turn has scaled back on commitments under the deal to restrict its uranium enrichment program.

MH/PA