MANAMA, Bahrain -- Kuwaiti deputy prime minister insisted on Saturday that his country defends Iran’s nuclear rights, saying Iran, like any other country which has signed the NPT, is entitled to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

“This is the right of every country to have peaceful nuclear energy,” Sheikh Muhammed Sabah al-Salem al-Sabah who is also Kuwait’s foreign minister said in a question and answer session in the Manama forum organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
“However, we have told Tehran that nuclear standoff between this country and the agency (the International Atomic Energy Agency) will put the region in an unfavorable situation,” the Kuwaiti official said.
He said Iran is an important regional country and if the Security Council imposes sanctions against the country the “whole region” will be affected and “we want Iran to cooperate with the agency.”
He also said the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council which Kuwait is a member has allocated 700 million dollars to develop nuclear plants and the IAEA has been informed of the matter.
The prime minister said the PGCC heads of state have discussed the issue in a meeting in Saudi Arabia.
Any attempt against Iran will be against entire region
Kuwaiti Deputy Prime Minister said that any attempt against Iran will be an attempt against the entire region.
Al-Sabah made the remarks in a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki on the sidelines of the IISS regional security meeting in Manama on Saturday.
Mottaki, for his part, pointed out that regional states should adopt a new policy based upon the realities in the region.
The sides also emphasized the necessity of expanding bilateral ties