TEHRAN Bahrain's emir died minutes after a serious debate with U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen, who said he sensed something wasn't quite right with the normally convivial sheikh, a Manama-based diplomat told the TEHRAN TIMES. Sheikh Issa ibn Salman al-Khalifa was stricken five minutes after the meeting, said a U.S. senior military official traveling with the secretary, the AFP reported. I could tell even this morning as I was talking with him that there was something that wasn't quite right, Cohen told reporters aboard a U.S. Air Force plane before departing for Riyadh. However, Cohen and members of his delegation did not refer to the debate with the sheikh.

He had a very warm and generous spirit a light in his eyes that was not there today, Cohen recalled. Cohen's half-hour meeting which accompanied hard exchange of words with the emir ended at 11:15 a.m. (0815 GMT). By 11:30, the emir was dead, a senior Pentagon official said.