Re-establishing Iran trust important: UAE

ABU DHABI, Sept 7: A top Emirati official on Monday said that restoring trust with Iran will be difficult but necessary, in an apparent olive branch to Tehran, which has repeatedly hit the Gulf.

Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the UAE President, also said that Gulf countries failed to come together collectively to respond to the Iranian threat during the Middle East war, with each country defending itself but failing to come together with a common strategy.

"Our dialogue with Iran should be ambitious. It should move beyond transactional issues and address the larger strategic questions confronting the Gulf: security, non-interference, freedom of navigation, economic cooperation, and ultimately the rebuilding of confidence," Gargash said at the Hili Forum in Abu Dhabi.

"Trust is the mountain we will have to climb, and there is something worth climbing towards," he added.

"Geography leaves us no alternative to engagement, but we must distinguish clearly between rebuilding a necessary and functional relationship with Iran and rebuilding the trust that has been broken. �" AFP