Who is behind the UAE’s provocative remarks against Iran?
The UAE, a
federation of seven emirates, came into being when Britain granted independence
to its Persian Gulf protectorates and withdrew its forces in 1971. Now its
foreign minister draws erroneous and misleading comparisons between Israel’s
criminal occupation of the Palestinian homeland and Iran’s legal administration
over its own islands. The position adopted by the UAE's inexperienced foreign
minister, who'll be celebrating his 38th birthday tomorrow, is a harbinger of
Abu Dhabi's anti-Iranian plot, which is apparently planned and directed by the
White House. Threatening Iran with “all options”, warning about a potential
nuclear strike, imposing crippling sanctions, promoting Iranophobia in the
region, and provoking a novice state to call into question the territorial
integrity of the most ancient civilization of the region are only a few of the
actions the White House has taken to prevent the emergence of a powerful Iran.
-- Kourosh
Ziabari
A lack of diplomatic
finesse
By Kourosh
Ziabari
It seems that UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh
Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan has much to learn about the fine art of
diplomacy.
Demonstrating his lack of diplomatic finesse and
inexperience, the UAE foreign minister has exposed himself to the possibility of
a harsh response from the Islamic
Republic of Iran through his provocative remarks
in which he explicitly questions the territorial integrity of the Islamic
Republic, the most tolerant and pacifist state of the Persian Gulf
region.
With the surreptitious support of the Zionist,
U.S., and British lobbies, the United Arab Emirates is now playing the role of a
regional ally of the hegemonistic powers that have created a specter of
Iranophobia for Arab states, which now consider Iran a serious threat to their
security.
The United Arab Emirates, which in 2004 started
negotiations with Tel Aviv over the establishment of an Israeli representative
office in Abu Dhabi, is currently holding negotiations on a $20 million deal
with the Zionist regime that would facilitate the UAE’s access to the
Israeli-built satellite Eros B and its high-resolution
imagery.
A report published on February 23, 2009 on the
American Defense News website said that “for Israel, the deal represents the
latest step in forging links with a key moderate Arab state which, like Israel,
worries about the threat from Iran.”
The “moderate Arab state”, which denies having
official relations with Israel, began clandestine talks with Tel Aviv in 2006
and later signed contracts with the Israeli-based company ImageSat
International.
The invitation of Israeli Infrastructure Minister
Uzi Landau to Abu Dhabi to attend an international conference on renewable
energy in early 2010 was the latest move by the Persian Gulf state toward
normalizing ties with Israel.
According to a report published by the UAE
newspaper The National, the UAE is now one of the world's biggest arms
purchasers and a leading client of the U.S. military-industrial
complex.
On April 20, the UAE foreign minister likened
Iran's control of three strategic islands in the Persian Gulf, Abu Musa and the
Greater and Lesser Tunbs, to Israel's occupation of Arab
territories.
The UAE, a federation of seven emirates, came
into being when Britain granted independence to its Persian Gulf protectorates
and withdrew its forces in 1971. Now its foreign minister draws erroneous and
misleading comparisons between Israel’s criminal occupation of the Palestinian
homeland and Iran’s legal administration over its own
islands.
The position adopted by the UAE's inexperienced
foreign minister, who'll be celebrating his 38th birthday tomorrow, is a
harbinger of Abu Dhabi's anti-Iranian plot, which is apparently planned and
directed by the White House. Threatening Iran with “all options”, warning about
a potential nuclear strike, imposing crippling sanctions, promoting Iranophobia
in the region, and provoking a novice state to call into question the
territorial integrity of the most ancient civilization of the region are only a
few of the actions the White House has taken to prevent the emergence of a
powerful Iran.
The UAE claims to have a legal right of
sovereignty over the three Persian Gulf islands and says that Iran has occupied
its islands unlawfully. However, there is an enormous amount of historical
documents and other evidence that prove the UAE is only making baseless
allegations.
First of all, the country of the UAE, in its
current configuration, only came into existence in the year 1971, while Iran has
been a regional superpower for the past 2500 years.
In addition, Professor Pirouz Mojtahedzadeh, the
renowned Iranian scholar and geopolitical expert, has said that Iranian Prime
Minister Haji Mirza Aqasi's proclamation of ownership of all islands in the
Persian Gulf in the 1840s was not challenged by any government at the
time.
In 1888, Sir Henry Drummond Wolff, the British
minister-plenipotentiary to Tehran, presented a War Office map to Iranian King
Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar in which the islands were identified as Iranian
territory.
In his 1892 book Persia and the Persian Question,
George Nathaniel Curzon, the viceroy and governor-general of India, wrote that
the islands belonged to Iran.
In fact, the UAE’s claims are so ridiculous that
one can easily dismiss them as propagandistic rhetoric and psychological
warfare.
Iranian officials have so far responded to the
imprudence of their UAE counterparts in a relatively tolerant way, showing the
international community Iran's determination to maintain peace and stability in
the region and to implement its policy of détente.
However, the Iranian people will not stand idly
by while others insult their national honor.
The author is a freelance,
independent journalist from Iran.
8:04 AM
Sultan Shahin
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