Iran

Iran PG islands ownership non-negotiable: MP

347295_Iran-islandsAn Iranian lawmaker says Tehran has nothing to negotiate with regard to the Islamic Republic’s sovereignty over three islands in the Persian Gulf.

“The issue of Iran sovereignty on the three islands [of Abu Musa, the Greater Tunb and the Lesser Tunb] is not negotiable,” Mansour Haqiqatpour said on Thursday.

“Nobody from Iran is entitled to negotiate the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran over the three islands,” he added.

The remarks by Haqiqatpour, who is vice-chairman of Iran Majlis Foreign Policy and National Security Committee, come less than a month after media rumors about Iran-UAE negotiations on the islands.

Haqiqatpour said Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has held no talks on the sovereignty of the islands during his recent Persian Gulf tour but merely discussed issues pertaining to the nationals of regional countries in Abu Musa.

Chairman of Iran Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Alaeddin Boroujerdi said recently that repeated claims by the UAE regarding the ownership of the three Iranian islands lack legal and historical credibility.

The Greater Tunb, the Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa have historically been part of Iran, proof of which can be found in and corroborated by countless historical, legal and geographical documents in Iran and other parts of the world. However, the UAE has repeatedly laid claims on the islands.

The islands temporarily fell under British control in the 1800s but were returned to Iran on November 30, 1971, through a legal procedure that preceded the establishment of the UAE as an independent state.

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