Bahrain Mirror: The Executive Director of The International Institute for Strategic Studies - Middle East (IISS-Middle East), Sir John Jenkins, revealed an official invitation sent out by the institute organizing the "Manama Dialogue Summit", to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Jawad Zarif, inviting him to take part in the summit scheduled to be held next month.

He said that the "institute sent out an invitation to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif, and to many other ministers around the globe, inviting them to take part in the summit", according to Bahrain's al-Ayyam newspaper.

Until now it is not known whether the Iranian Minister will take part in the Summit or not. However, his participation will be the first high-rank diplomatic participation of its kind since Manama announced cutting its diplomatic relations with Tehran last January. This was back when Iran harshly condemned Saudi Arabia for the execution of Prominent Shiite Cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.

The newspaper had reported that British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson will lead his country's delegation to take part in the "Manama Dialogue Summit", while French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian will lead a French delegation to take part in Manama's annual defense summit.

The annual "Manama Dialogue Summit", highlights the biggest security challenges of the Gulf region and the Middle East, and ways of confronting them.

Arabic Version