TEHRAN - Kuwaiti Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled al-Jarallah said on Tuesday that his country conveyed messages from Iran to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain regarding the situation in the Persian Gulf region, and “until now no answers have emerged”, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

“In fact, Kuwait has sent these messages to (Saudi and Bahraini) brothers,” the deputy foreign minister said, according the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA).

Officials in Tehran have confirmed in the last few days that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has sent letters to leaders of the Persian Gulf Arab states, including the Saudi king, about Tehran’s peace initiative, called the Hormuz Peace Endeavor (HOPE).

“Not only we have sent a clear message about establishing a line of dialogue to Saudi Arabia but to all regional states,” presidential chief of staff Mahmoud Vaezi said on Tuesday.

Government spokesman Ali Rabiei also told a press conference on Monday that that core of letters is “peace and stability” in the region.

“We believe that U.S. pressures should not make neighbors to take distance from each other,” Rabiei added.

Iran and Saudi Arabia have been at loggerheads over a number of issues, chief among them the Saudi-led war against Yemen.

Suspicious attacks on commercial ships in the Sea of Oman near the Strait of Hormuz in the summer added to the tensions in the Persian Gulf. The United States and Saudi Arabia blamed Iran for the attacks. Iran dismissed the accusations as laughable.

At the United Nations’ summit in New York in late September, Iran officially unveiled proposal for regional security.

“Based upon the historical responsibility of my country in maintaining security, peace, stability and progress in the Persian Gulf region and Strait of Hormuz, I would like to invite all the countries directly affected by the developments in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz to the ‘Coalition for Hope’, meaning Hormuz Peace Endeavor,” President Hassan Rouhani told the UN delegates.

PA/PA