US embassy cable - 05MANAMA974

C O N F I D E N T I A L MANAMA 000974 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/09/2015 
TAGS: PREL, BA, IR 
SUBJECT: BAHRAIN/IRAN TONE DOWN RHETORIC 
 
REF: MANAMA 949 
 
Classified By: Ambassador William T. Monroe.  Reason: 1.4 (B)(D) 
 
1. (SBU) Bahrain's King Hamad telephoned Iranian President 
Khatami July 8 to thank him for his statement that Iran was 
not threatening any Gulf states following the publication of 
a cartoon in a Bahrain newspaper June 30 that was deemed 
insulting to Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei (reftel).  The phone 
call apparently brings to an end a minor tempest between the 
two countries that underscores Bahrain's hypersensitivity 
towards its relations with Iran (and its concern about Iran's 
influence in the Shia community in Bahrain). 
 
2. (C) The June 30 cartoon in the pro-government Arabic daily 
Al-Ayam depicted an Iranian ayatollah wearing glasses  with 
his beard crossing in an upward zigzag over a chart entitled 
"2005 Iranian elections."  Minister of Information/MFA 
MinState Abdul Ghaffar told the Ambassador that he did not 
think the cartoonist specifically meant to caricature 
Khamenei, but acknowledged that it would have been better if 
the depicted ayatollah had not been wearing glasses (many 
here considered the glasses to be the giveaway that Khamenei 
was the intended target). 
 
3. (C) Reaction to the cartoon among Bahrain's Shia community 
was sharp and critical, and Iran's Ambassador in Bahrain 
quickly called on Abdul Ghaffar to lodge a protest.  Abdul 
Ghaffar told us he advised the Iranian Ambassador that he 
would not accept the protest, telling him that Al-Ayam was 
not a government paper and the two governments should not 
rush in with protests every time a newspaper publishes 
something the other country does not like.  Iran's Foreign 
Ministry Spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi then issued a statement 
during his regular weekly news conference saying Iran had 
warned Bahrain that "the countries of the region must know 
that they will suffer more than us from this kind of action, 
as the abilities of the different countries are not 
comparable."  This comment was viewed as a threat in Bahrain, 
and GCC Secretary-General Al-Attiya criticized the statement 
in an interview with the Kuwait news agency.  King Hamad 
expressed his concern to the Ambassador in a meeting on July 
5 (reftel). 
 
4. (C) On July 6, President Khatami issued a statement 
denying that any threats had been made to any Gulf country. 
"I never saw any threat from the declarations of Hamid Reza 
Asefi," he stated.  "It is a misunderstanding.  We have 
friendly relations with all Arab and Islamic countries."  At 
that point, Abdul Ghaffar said, the King decided to call 
Khatami in an effort to calm the situation down (both with 
Iran and with what Abdul Ghaffar called Iran's fifth column 
in Bahrain).  "In general, we don't want tensions with Iran," 
Abdul Ghaffar stated. 
MONROE