Iran rejected Sunday criticism from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) over its military maneuvers in the Arabian Gulf and its claims to ownership of three strategic islands, said reports.
“War games are conducted according to the general policies of the government to strengthen and support the security and stability in the Persian Gulf and it is expected that regional states would support it,” said foreign ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi, cited by the official IRNA news agency.
Asefi also blasted the GCC over the islands row, vowing that Abu Mussa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs "have been Iranian territory and will (remain to) be."
He called on the “friendly Arab states to encourage the UAE to hold direct talks with Iran without any precondition within the framework of Iran's principled policy on support for stability and security in the Gulf region so as to remove current disputes on Abumusa island, said IRNA.
He also called on the UAE and all countries, which feel responsible for stability and security of the region, to refrain from adopting policies and methods whose destructive outcome will cause sufferings for regional people and governments while their destructive effects have not been fully removed.
Iran has held the islands since Britain pulled out of the region in 1971.
Foreign ministers from the six GCC members, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, met in Riyadh on Sunday ahead of a group summit in Amman on March 27.
The ministers said the isles row was a source of "instability in the region" and called on Iran to stop "military maneuvers in the three occupied islands and in the territorial waters of the United Arab Emirates." – Albawaba.com
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