22 Jun 2008 12:45:18 GMT
RIYADH, June 22 (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia has acknowledged it detained eight Bahrainis who local media had said were suspected of spying for Iran, according to a report on Sunday.
Saudi newspapers and news websites had said several Bahrainis were arrested in February near a desert military installation. They claimed to have lost their way.
“The issue is still at the accusation stage and the investigations will reveal the truth,” Interior Minister Prince Nayef was quoted as telling reporters in al-Watan daily.
22 Jun 2008 12:45:18 GMT
RIYADH, June 22 (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia has acknowledged it detained eight Bahrainis who local media had said were suspected of spying for Iran, according to a report on Sunday.
Saudi newspapers and news websites had said several Bahrainis were arrested in February near a desert military installation. They claimed to have lost their way.
“The issue is still at the accusation stage and the investigations will reveal the truth,” Interior Minister Prince Nayef was quoted as telling reporters in al-Watan daily.
“The issue is being exaggerated,” he added, in an apparent reference to reports in Saudi media that the detainees are being questioned over links to Iran.
Tensions have developed between Tehran and U.S.-allied Gulf Arab governments over Iran’s growing influence in the Arab world since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and its nuclear energy programme.
“We have heard from the Bahraini government that the Saudis have not filed any formal charges against them,” said Nabeel Rajab, vice president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights.
“I think they have been victims of the tension in the region between Iran and the United States and the Gulf countries. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. All of them are Shi’ites.”
The small island state of Bahrain, which is joined to Saudi Arabia by a causeway, has a Shi’ite majority with historical and religious links to Shi’ite power Iran. Saudi Arabia sees itself as the the leader of Sunni Islam. (Reporting by Andrew Hammond and Mohammed Abbas)