Senior MP: UAE Claims on Iran’s Trio Islands Have No Historical, Legal Grounds

Chairman of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi lashed out at the United Arab Emirates for repeating its baseless territorial claims over the three Iranian islands of Abu Musa, the Greater Tunb and the Lesser Tunb in the Persian Gulf, reiterating that the UAE’s claims are devoid of any value because they are based on no legal or historical grounds.

Addressing a press conference in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, UAE Foreign Minister Abdallah Bin Zayid Al-Nahayan repeated his unfounded claims about the sovereignty of the trio islands.

His remarks have received condemnation and harsh criticism in Tehran with Foreign Minister Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham stressing on Friday that no one can break away the trio islands from the Iranian mainland as they are indispensable parts of the Iranian territory.

Then today, Boroujerdi condemned the UAE allegations, saying, “Iran has owned the islands since the time when there was basically no place in the region’s political geography called the UAE.”

“These kinds of allegations bear no legal value and are just useless political hue and cry that will produce no benefit for the UAE in the end,” Boroujerdi added.

“The three Iranian islands do and will belong to the Islamic Republic of Iran, and Iran’s historical ownership of these islands is an irrefutable reality,” the senior lawmaker continued.

Yesterday, Afkham deplored the UAE’s false territorial claims, saying, “The three Iranian islands have been and will remain part of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and Iran’s historical ownership of these islands is an undeniable fact.”

Iranian officials have on many occasions rejected the claims raised by the UAE on the three Iranian islands, underlining that such statements are baseless and unfounded.

International documents clearly show that the three islands of the Greater Tunb, the Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa which were historically owned by Iran, temporarily fell to British control in 1903. The islands were returned to Iran based on an agreement in 1971 before the UAE was born.

Iran has repeatedly declared that its ownership of the three islands is unquestionable.

Under international law, no state can defy any agreement, which came into being before its establishment.

Yet, the UAE continues to make territorial claims against the Islamic Republic despite historical evidence and international regulations.