Angry Iran

TEHERAN - 8 May 2008 - Iran angry as Iraq backs UAE on isles - Iran has protested to Iraq over reports that Baghdad had backed the United Arab Emirates’ claim to three islands in the Gulf, the foreign ministry said yesterday.

“The Iraqi ambassador (Mohammed Majid Abbas Al Shaikh) was invited (to the foreign ministry) and was notified of Iran’s protest,” foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told the state broadcaster.

“The Iraqi government was also asked to correct its position,” he said. The official UAE agency Wam reported on April 28 that in a memorandum sent to the UAE foreign ministry, the Iraqi government asserted “its unconditional support to the sovereignty of UAE” over the three islands.

“It also said that Iraq supports all procedures and peaceful means UAE will adopt to reclaim the three islands, and rejects any action from Iran to bolster the occupation,” the agency reported.

Iran occupied the Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa islands, which control access to the Strait of Hormuz between Iran and the UAE, after British forces left the Gulf in 1971.

Teheran has rejected claims by the UAE, which insists the islands in strategic Gulf waters are occupied by Iran.

The Islamic republic has also ruled out taking the issue before the international court in The Hague, although the UAE launched a fresh appeal yesterday in Cairo.

“Egypt agrees that this question ... should be subject to judicial measures, even at the level of the UN Security Council,” said Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair, speaker of the UAE Federal National Council.

“The UAE must ask Iran (to accept) a recourse to the International Court of Justice,” he told reporters after a meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abdul Gheit.

Despite their differences over the islands, the two states have close ties, with Iran being the UAE’s top trading partner. Iranians also form a sizable diaspora community in Dubai.

Since the fall of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, Shia-majority Iran has enjoyed warm ties with its western neighbour, which fought a bloody war with Iran from 1980 to 1988.

However, the Iraqi government announced earlier this week that it will form a panel of security ministries to investigate and document any Iranian intervention in Iraqi affairs, amid mounting US claims of meddling by Teheran.

Iran vehemently rejects allegations of interference in Iraq, saying the best way to restore stability to the country would be the immediate exit of US and other foreign troops. (AFP)