Arab nations urged to pressure Iran on UAE islands dispute

ISLANDS DISPUTE: The UAE's claim to three islands in the Straits of Hormuz is to be raised in the Arab Parliament.

All Arab countries should pressure Iran to hand back the three disputed islands in the Straits of Hormuz to the UAE, the Arab Parliament's deputy speaker has said.

Speaking to state news agency Wam, Mustafa Al Faqee said he intends to table the issue for discussion at the next session of parliament to rally support for the UAE, and called on the Gulf state to never abandon its claim on the islands.

However, he cautioned the UAE to keep the dispute separate from the growing confrontation between Iran and the US, which has imposed several rounds of sanctions on the Islamic republic over its refusal to halt its nuclear programme.

"UAE should never abandon its right to the three islands. At the same time, standing by the political intelligence and the well-known wisdom of UAE, it is not desirable too that [the] UAE rushes the issue into the arena of US-Iran confrontation over the Iranian nuclear programme," Al Faqee told Wam.

He suggested the issue should constitute a separate article in the direct relations between UAE and Iran.

Greater and Lesser Tunbs and Abu Musa, which lie between the UAE and Iran, have been occupied by the Islamic republic since 1971.

The UAE has stepped up pressure on Iran in the last year to settle the despute, with UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahayan making several public appeals to Tehran to hand back the islands.

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However, Iran has shown no intention of heeding the UAE's calls, dismissing the “interference of third-parties” and labelling the Gulf state's claims on the islands “vain and baseless”.

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