The Latest: UAE officials visit Iran for rare talks

The Latest on tensions in the Persian Gulf (all times local):

2:45 p.m.

Officials from the United Arab Emirates and Iran have met to discuss maritime security for the first time in six years amid a spike in tensions in the Persian Gulf.

An Emirati official, who was not authorized to discuss the talks and so spoke on condition of anonymity, said the meetings focused on issues related to border security and navigation in shared waters, describing the talks as “nothing new” and unrelated to current tensions.

The state-run IRAN daily reported that a seven-member delegation from Abu Dhabi met with Iranian border and coastguard commanders in Tehran on Tuesday in the first such meeting since 2013.

The UAE is a close ally of Saudi Arabia. The two Arab Gulf countries view Iran as a regional menace and are at war with Iran-aligned rebels in Yemen.

The UAE has long lobbied for a more hawkish U.S. policy toward Iran, but as tensions have risen in recent months, fears of a wider conflict have prompted the UAE to call for de-escalation.

— Aya Batrawy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates

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1:15 p.m.

Iran has dismissed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s offer to visit and address the Iranian people as a “hypocritical gesture.”

Addressing Pompeo in remarks to reporters on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said “You don’t need to come to Iran.” He suggested Pompeo instead grant visas for Iranian reporters to travel to the U.S. and interview him, accusing him of having rejected their requests.

On Monday, Pompeo tweeted: “We aren’t afraid of (Zarif) coming to America where he enjoys the right to speak freely. Are the facts of the (Khamenei) regime so bad he cannot let me do the same thing in Tehran?” he said, referring to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “What if his people heard the truth, unfiltered, unabridged?”

U.S.-Iranian tensions have soared in recent months.