TEHRAN - Persian Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary General Abdulrahman al-Attiyah has rebuffed U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ demand that PGCC countries begin pressuring Iran.

During a recent trip to Bahrain, Gates urged regional Arab countries to impose sanctions on the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Fars News Agency reported on Sunday.
Iran is a neighboring country and shares Islamic principles and ideals with the countries of the region, al-Attiyah stated.
“Any kind of instability or disturbance in Iran would have negative repercussions on the whole region,” he pointed out.
The region once suffered due to the Iraq-Kuwait crisis, and this motivated the countries to improve their relations with their neighbors, al-Attiyah noted.
He had also stated in an interview with Aljazeera that the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program should be dealt with through dialogue since “the region has experienced three wars in the past three decades.”
In order to establish security and stability in the Middle East, more bridges should be built between Iran and other regional countries, he added