Manama: Kuwait has reiterated its call to Iran to regain the trust of the countries in the region by adopting policies based on the United Nations principles and international laws.
Tehran should respect the sovereignty of all countries across the world and not interfere in their domestic affairs and to uphold the principle of good neighbourliness, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was quoted as saying by the Kuwaiti official news agency.
The spokesperson added that Kuwait “has observed with great attention the latest speech given by the President of the United Stated Donald Trump regarding the adoption of a new strategy in dealing with Iran.”
“Kuwait has previously welcomed the agreement between Iran and P5+1- the UN Security Council’s five permanent member countries plus Germany- regarding Iran’s nuclear issue. The welcome was based on Kuwait’s commitment towards the security and stability of the region and the significance of achieving a Middle East free of weapons of weapons of mass destruction,” the spokesperson said.
“Such collective arrangements have established a positive and effective approach to the joint process of building confidence and contributing to international peace and security.”
Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have warmly welcomed Trump’s new strategy.
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia welcomes and supports the resolute strategy announced by US President Donald Trump towards Iran and its aggressive approach, and praises his vision in this regard and his commitment to work with US allies in the region in order to face common challenges,” Riyadh said in a statement.
Saudi Arabia had previously supported the nuclear agreement between Iran and the 5 + 1 powers, in the belief that it was necessary to limit proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, in the region and the world, the statement said.
“There was hope it would prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons in any way and achieve security and peace, in the region. However, Iran had exploited the economic benefits of lifting the sanctions and used them to continue to destabilise the region, especially through its ballistic missile development programme and support of terrorism, in the region, including Hezbollah and Al Houthi militias, in Yemen.”
The statement stressed that “Iran has not only done so in flagrant violation of the resolution, but it also transferred such potentials and experience to its client militias, including Houthi militia, which used the missiles to target the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, hence exposing the falsehood of the Iranian claims that the development of these capabilities is only for defensive reasons.”
Riyadh added that it “reaffirms full commitment to continue to work with partners in the United States and the international community to achieve the objectives declared by the President of the United States and the need to address threats posed by Iran’s policies to international peace and security, within a wider perspective beyond Iran’s nuclear programme to include its all aggressive activities, in order to cut off all possibilities for Iran to acquire weapons of mass destruction.”
In UAE capital Abu Dhabi, the Foreign Ministry said that “for too long, the Iranian regime has spread destruction and chaos throughout the region and beyond.
“The nuclear deal offered Iran an opportunity to engage responsibly with the international community. Instead, it only emboldened Iran to intensify its provocative and destabilizing behaviour,” the ministry said.
“The new US strategy takes necessary steps to confront Iran’s malign behaviour in all its forms – including its growing ballistic missile programme, support for terrorist organizations like ‘Hezbollah’ and the Houthis, cyber-attacks, interference in its neighbours’ domestic affairs and threats to the freedom of navigation.”
In Manama, Bahrain said that it welcomed the strategy announced by President Trump and stressed that Iran is the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism.
“The Kingdom also welcomes the steps announced by President Trump on how to deal with the Iranian Nuclear Agreement including the imposition of sanctions on the Iranian Revolutionary Guards,” a statement said.
“The Kingdom lauds the policy of President Trump and his keenness to prevent chaos and to counter Iran’s attempts to promote terrorism. Bahrain is one of the countries most affected by the expansionist policy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that aims to undermine the security of our societies by promoting and supporting extremist ideas and destructive acts of terrorism, which are unacceptable and cannot be tolerated.”
