Tehran summons European envoys over ‘interventionist’ GCC-EU statement
Iran’s Foreign Ministry summoned envoys from European Union member states to protest the bloc's "interventionist" statements on the three Iranian islands in the Persian Gulf as well as the country’s nuclear program.
Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi criticized a joint communique issued by the bloc and the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and conveyed Tehran's "strong protest" over the EU’s support for the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) "baseless claim" to the islands.
Foreign ministers of the GCC and the EU in a joint statement on Monday repeated the UAE’s claims over the three Iranian islands of Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa in the Persian Gulf, expressing concern over the lack of progress about resolving the dispute between the UAE and Iran.
They also stressed the importance of what they called ensuring the peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear program, and ceasing of proliferation of ballistic missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles and any technologies that they claimed threaten the security of the region and beyond.
European support for “baseless” remarks violates the principle of respect for national sovereignty and territorial integrity, Takht-Ravanchi said, calling the statement politically-charged and biased.
Meanwhile, the commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) warned any miscalculations by enemies in the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz, or on the Iranian islands, will be met with a harsh and regret-inducing response.
Iran’s missile program
Takht-Ravanchi also vehemently denounced allegations aimed at tarnishing Iran’s missile program, calling them “clear interference” in the Islamic Republic’s internal affairs.
He rejected any false claims concerning the program as “exaggerated narratives,” and stressed that Iran’s indigenous defensive capacities, including its missile power, were part of its inherent right to self-defense and a guarantor of regional stability and security.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the senior diplomat strongly criticized the European envoys over the statement’s similarly false claims about Iran’s nuclear program.
“Instead of repeating baseless and stereotypical accusations regarding Iran’s nuclear program, the European parties should be held accountable for their own destructive conduct” that sabotaged a 2015 nuclear deal between the Islamic Republic and others, he stated.
The official was referring to the move that saw the European trio of the UK, France, and Germany, which are part of the deal, suspend their trade with Iran after the United States unilaterally and illegally left the agreement in 2018 and returned its sanctions against Tehran.