UAE foreign minister in talks over closer ties with Iran

TEHRAN TALKS: UAE's foreign minister is in talks with Iran with a view to set up a committee for economic and political cooperation. (Getty Images)

The UAE's foreign minister will visit Iran on Wednesday to finalise plans to set up a committee for economic and political cooperation between the neighbours who are at odds over disputed Gulf islands.

UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan will meet senior Iranian officials to finalise the creation of the committee that was first raised last year during a visit by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, an official source said.

The UAE and Iran have strong trade ties but diplomatic relations have been strained since Iran installed maritime offices on a disputed island in the strategic Gulf waterway earlier this year.

Gulf Arab countries have repeatedly urged Iran to remove the offices and backed the UAE's claim to the territories, but Iranian officials have rejected the complaints.

Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs, located near key shipping lanes in the Gulf, are controlled by non-Arab Iran but claimed by the UAE with broad Arab support.

The UAE summoned Iran's charge d'affaires in August to protest against Iran's establishment of the offices and in May protested against Iran's dismissal of the three-decade-old territorial dispute as a misunderstanding.

In May, a UAE foreign ministry official compared Iran's control over the islands to Israel's occupation of Arab land.

Shi'ite Muslim Iran has been seeking to boost ties with its Arab neighbours and Ahmadinejad in December became its first president to attend a summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council, made up mostly of Sunni Muslim states.

Washington accused Tehran of seeking to master nuclear technology to build bombs, a charge Iran denies, and US officials have urged companies, including during visits to Gulf Arab states, to cut business ties with Iran.

But many goods are re-exported from Dubai to Iran. Iran and Crescent Petroleum, a shareholder in UAE energy firm Dana Gas, have been negotiating a deal to supply Iranian gas to the UAE. The deal has been held up by a disagreement over prices. (Reuters)

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