Abu Dhabi: Analysts have called Iran’s threats to sever diplomatic relations with the UAE “flimsy and lacking respect and value”.
They also warned Tehran not to test UAE’s resolve over the issue of its three occupied islands, as Iran’s foreign ministry reportedly warned it could look at cutting diplomatic ties with the UAE because of a festering dispute over the islands.
Dr Ebtisam Al Katbi, professor of political science at the UAE University, said on Tuesday that Iran will be “the biggest loser of such a move, especially at this time when Tehran severely suffers from sanctions and pressures from the whole world.
Al Katbi stressed that the UAE’s respect of good neighbourly relations with Iran and other countries is what drives the nation, but not being “weak” or “insignificant”.
“On the contrary, the UAE can hit back with might,” Al Katbi said, warning that "Dubai is the lungs of Iran.”
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted by AFP as telling the parliamentary news website icana.ir “If making such anti-Iranian claims [to the UAE’s occupied islands] reaches a level that national interests lie in reducing or severing political ties... [such a move] will be implemented after consultations with experts,”
The UAE maintaining these “baseless claims will have a negative effect on bilateral relations,” Mehmanparast reportedly said.
Iran occupied the islands of Abu Musa, Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb, which lie in the strategic Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf, in 1971 when colonial-era Britain withdrew from the UAE.
Dr Abdul Khaleq Abdullah, professor of political science at the UAE university, branded the Iranian threats “flimsy and lacking respect and value.”
“It is the UAE and all other GCC members which should sever ties with this difficult neighbour,” he said and warned, “let Iran goes to the end of the world, and not just cuts ties with the UAE, nothing will stop the nation from pursuing all means to recover its lands.
Dr Abdul Rahim Al Shaheen, associate professor of political science and member of the Federal National Council, said Iran is in desperate need of the UAE, citing the “worst ever political and economic conditions Tehran is going through for the time being.”
Dr Al Shaheen added that all GCC countries should react firmly to these threats, which he called ‘for local consumption.”
Dr Al Shaheen said these Iranian provocations will not change historical and legal facts proving the UAE’s sovereignty over its three islands
The UAE repeatedly urged Iran to listen to reason and join negotiations over the three islands or take the issue to international arbitration.
Shaikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs, on many occasions stressed the importance of maritime security in the Gulf as “40 per cent of the world’s energy literally passes through the three islands near the mouth of the strategic Strait of Hormuz.”
