The editor-in-chief of Iran’s hardline daily Kayhan, overseen by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, said Bahrain’s “main demand” is reunification with Iran, stepping up Tehran’s response to a recent GCC statement on the three disputed Persian Gulf islands.

Hossein Shariatmadari wrote that Bahrainis seek a “return to the main and mother homeland,” going beyond Iran’s usual rejection of GCC references to Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs.

“This undeniable right of Iran and the people of its separated province cannot and should not be ignored,” he said.

His remarks followed a GCC communiqué issued Wednesday that reaffirmed support for Emirati claims over the islands and called for negotiations or referral to the International Court of Justice. Such statements often prompt formal Iranian protests or diplomatic summonses.

Kayhan links GCC stance to foreign alignment

Shariatmadari accused Persian Gulf states of acting under Western pressure and cited 19th-century British maps to argue Iran’s continuous sovereignty over the islands. He described Bahrain’s separation as a result of foreign intervention and said consultations with tribal leaders did not amount to a true referendum.

His remarks ventured beyond standard Iranian diplomatic messaging, which generally restricts itself to sovereignty claims dating to 1971 and rejects third-party arbitration. By reviving the Bahrain question – largely absent from formal diplomacy for decades – the column broadened the dispute at a moment when GCC statements increasingly pair the islands with Saudi-Kuwaiti positions on the offshore Arash/Durra gas field.

GCC communiqués regularly reprise both issues, while Iran emphasizes territorial “red lines” and warns neighbors against what Tehran describes as misreading its posture in the Persian Gulf.