DUBAI: A top security official in the United Arab Emirates warned Iran on Monday not to drag its Arab neighbours in the Gulf into any conflict with the West, a newspaper reported.

“Our strong relations with Iranians don’t mean that governments in the GCC will not react strongly to any work that will endanger social stability and economic prosperity,” Dubai police chief Lieutenant General Dhahi Khalfan Tamim said in remarks posted on the Gulf News website.

His remarks came one week after the same Dubai-based paper quoted a senior Iranian defector as alleging that Iran runs a network of agents in the six Arab monarchies of the Gulf that could be used to destabilise the region.

Iranian Defence Minister Mustafa Mohammad Najjar dismissed the claim as “lies and provocative remarks from enemy western media.”

And Kuwait’s defence minister on Monday called the defector’s reported comments “mere rumours.” According to Gulf News, Dubai’s police chief acknowledged that Iran might have sleeping agents in the region.

“My advice to them (is to) keep them sleeping because it is not in the interests of Iranians in the region to destabilise host countries,” he was quoted as saying.—AFP