King of Bahrain Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa extended on Thursday an invitation to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin to attend a Middle East peace conference that will be hosted by the kingdom.
King Hamad is on an official visit to Russia where he held talks with Putin at the Kremlin. The leaders discussed several issues, including expanding trade between their countries.
On the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, King Hamad said: “Arab countries are in agreement over the need to hold a peace conference to resolve the problem of the Middle East.”
“Russia is the first country we are turning to to support this conference because it has the greatest international influence,” he went on to say.
King Hamad also said Bahrain supports normalizing ties with Iran.
“We had problems with Iran, but not anymore,” he remarked. “We see no reason to delay the normalization of relations with it.”
He underlined the principle of good neighborliness, adding: “We are trying to establish normal diplomatic, trade and cultural relations with it.”
King Hamad had kicked off his official visit to Russia on Wednesday at the invitation of Putin.
