The remarks by Prince Turki al-Faisal came Sunday during a US-led forum in Manama, Bahrain on Middle East Security, in which the American military chief Chuck Hagel also participated and made a major speech.

"I suggest that the negotiations on Iran not be limited to the P5+1" comprising the United States, China, Britain, France and Germany,” insisted the senior Saudi prince, who has also served as the Wahhabi regime’s ambassador to the United States and Britain.

"The [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council must be involved," he reportedly added nearly two weeks after Iran and the major powers broke through a decade of gridlock on November 24 and agreed on an interim deal that preserved the Islamic Republic’s right to uranium enrichment for its civilian nuclear program.

The [P]GCC consists of Persian Gulf Arab kingdoms of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

"Iran is in the [Persian] Gulf and any military effort will affect us all, let alone the environmental impact" Tehran's uranium enrichment program could have on the region, he further stated without elaborating on what he had in mind about a “military effort” or the “environmental impact” of a civilian uranium enrichment.

The remarks by the 68-year-old Saudi prince came following official state visits to four Persian Gulf nations of Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates by Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif last week to reassure them over the interim nuclear agreement in Geneva, in addition to seeking enhanced ties and stronger cooperation as neighboring states.

Zarif, however, did not visit Saudi Arabia, but publicly announced his desire to do so in a near future, while also appealing to the Saudi kingdom to cooperate with the Islamic Republic  on regional security issues.

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