WHAT OTHER OPTION DO THEY HAVE NOW THAT THE SHI'A/PROTESTANT ALLIANCE IS OFFICIAL?:

United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed on a rare visit to Iran on Thursday called for a partnership with Iran, but suspicion remains despite Tehran's tentative overtures towards its Gulf neighbors. [...]

"We are neighbors but do not confine ourselves to this and are calling to be partners," Sheikh Abdullah was quoted as saying by Iran's official IRNA news agency.

Zarif, speaking after the meeting with Sheikh Abdullah, who also met President Rouhani, said peace would benefit everybody in the region.

"We see the progress of countries in the region as a success and any type of danger as a threat to them. Security and development cannot be separated and we see relations with regional countries as taking this form," IRNA quoted him as saying.

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