TEHRAN, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Iran and Bahrain said Friday that there was no tension in their relations after remarks by a former Iranian official aroused a sovereignty dispute, Iran's English-language satellite news channel Press TV reported.

    Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and his Bahraini counterpart Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa said at a joint Friday press conference in Tehran that both countries enjoy amiable relations.

    Mottaki stressed that Iran respected the sovereignty of Bahrain, saying "certain misunderstandings" between Tehran and Manama had to be removed.

    "The general policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran calls for the establishment and the fortification of sincere and the good relations with Persian Gulf states," Mottaki said.

    The Bahraini foreign minister said his visit was "a response to all those parties which want to see distorted relations between the two countries."

    He also said that Tehran and Manama should work closely to remove any misunderstandings.

    Earlier this month Arab media reported that Iran's former Majlis (parliament) Speaker Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri, who is now Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's advisor, had said that "Bahrain was the 14th province of Iran until 1970."

    A number of other Iranian officials have also reportedly claimed that Bahrain was an integral part of the Islamic republic and questioned its Arabic identity.

    Iranian officials' sovereignty claim has drawn strong criticism from Bahrain and other Arab countries.

    But the Iranian Foreign Ministry later clarified its official stance by saying that "Iran-Bahrain relations have always been upon mutual respect to their sovereignty, which would never be affected by insignificant issues."