The ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, has urged the international community to lift its sanctions against Iran.

”Iran is our neighbour and we don’t want any problem[s],” the ruler told the BBC in an interview.

He also said he believes Iran’s nuclear programme is not intended to develop nuclear weapons. “I think that they’re telling the truth when they say just for civilian power,” he said. “I talked to [Iran’s former president, Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad and he said ‘If I send a rocket to Israel, how many Palestinians will I kill? And then the US and Europe will destroy my cities. I’m not crazy to go for that. It’s a weapon of the past’.”

In November last year, Iran and the P5+1 group of countries (China, France, Russia, the UK and the US, as well as Germany), reached a deal to limit Tehran’s controversial nuclear programme in return for the suspension of some sanctions.

As part of the deal, Iran agreed to halt all uranium enrichment above 5 per cent purity, while the P5+1 group agreed not to impose any new nuclear-related sanctions for the next six months.

The most important sanctions remain in place, however, including ones on the oil and banking sectors, and those being temporarily lifted could be swiftly reimposed should the Islamic Republic renege on its side of the bargain.

In December, Sheikh Mohammed and the UAE’s President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan accepted an invitation to visit Tehran from Iran’s foreign minister. No date has been set for their visit.

State visits to Tehran have been rare due to tensions between the two countries. The UAE’s late President Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan visited the Islamic Republic in 1977. Sheikh Mohammed also visited the country, accompanying his father Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed al-Maktoum, then ruler of Dubai, in the late 1970s. But there have been no official visits to Iran by the rulers of Abu Dhabi or Dubai since.

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