Update: Iran Hopes to Persuade Bahrain to Continue Gas Talks

It sounds as if Iran is trying hard to persuade Bahrain to come back to the table over the big natural gas deal that was put on hold over Ayatollah 'Ali Nateq-Nuri's remarks about Bahrain being a province of Iran. Certainly Iran needs the money from the gas deal, and the Foreign Ministry has done its best to calm the troubled waters created by the remarks. The fact that pretty much the same thing happened two years ago -- that time, the Iranian President actually visited Bahrain to patch things up -- suggests the level of suspicion about Iran's intentions that lies just below the surface in the Gulf.