UAE backs world efforts for Gulf security

Dubai: The UAE expressed on Wednesday backing for world efforts to safeguard security in the Gulf amid heightened tensions between Iran and the West over threats to shipping routes in the region.

“We are siding with initiatives that preserve the region’s security and push the spectre of confrontation away from it,” UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dr Anwar Mohammad Gargash said in a tweet.

“The international initiatives on navigation security around the Strait of Hormuz is a clear sign from the international community over the pivotal importance of navigation and energy security in our region for the world,” he added. “We realise that stability is based on diplomacy, respect of sovereignty and non-interference,” the minister added.

His comment comes amid a British proposal for setting up a European-led mission to safeguard shipping through the vital Strait of Hormuz after Iran seized a Britain-flagged oil tanker earlier this month.