Iranian FM to address Manama’s IISS regional security summit

MANAMA, Bahrain, Dec. 11 (MNA) – A regional security summit entitled “The 6th Manama Dialogue” will open Saturday with a focus on the security situation in the Persian Gulf, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

The conference is organized by the UK-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) which will run until Sunday.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki is a high profile guest to the meeting who is scheduled to deliver a speech at the opening ceremony on Saturday.

More than 300 delegates, including prime ministers, foreign and defense ministers, national security advisors and intelligence officials from 25 countries around the globe are expected to participate in the regional conference.

The future framework of the Persian Gulf security and security challenges in Iraq, and Afghanistan will top the agenda of the Manama Dialogue.

Regional security in a geo-economic context, regional security cooperation, regional security architecture, nuclear power, energy and security, and Afghanistan, Southwest Asia and the Persian Gulf will be debated in details during the four sideline sessions of the regional security summit.

The French, Iraqi, UAE, Afghan, and Pakistani foreign ministers, the German parliament speaker, the national security advisor to Indian prime minister, the Turkish defense minister, the senior advisor to French defense minister, the Kuwaiti deputy prime minister, the U.S. Army Central Command commander, and a military chief from Britain are among the invitees to the conference.

The conference is the sixth of its kind by the IISS which calls itself "the world’s leading authority on political-military conflict".

The IISS was founded in 1958, with its original focus on nuclear deterrence and arms control.

The institute claims 2,500 individual members and 450 corporate and institutional members from more than 100 countries.