Arab League States back UAE on islands issue

The Council of the League of Arab States reiterated Arabs’ firm stance of fully backing the UAE’s full sovereignty over its three islands, Abu Mousa, the Greater Tunb, the Lesser Tunb, including their regional waters, airspace, continental shelf and their exclusive economic zone, as integral parts of the UAE.

The league’s council, in a final communique issued late last night at the conclusion of an extraordinary session of foreign ministers of member states, condemned Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to Abu Mousa Island on April 11 as a violation of the UAE’s sovereignty over its three islands.

The communique also called on the secretary-general of the League of Arab States to follow up the issue and coordinate with the UAE at all international circles.

It stressed that Ahmadinejad’s visit to the UAE island would not change the historic and legal facts which all hold proof to the UAE’s sovereignty over these three islands, and demanded that Iran respond to calls by the UAE to find a peaceful and just solution through negotiations or by resorting to the international court.

It further pledged “full support to the UAE in all actions it takes to restore its rights and sovereignty over its islands”.

Calls by the UAE to find a just and peaceful solution to the issue of the islands are reflective of its balanced and serious belief in its relations with Iran and interest in promoting future prospects of resolving the causes of dispute which mars relations between Arab states and Iran, the communique said.

The Peninsula Shield’s “Islands of Loyalty’ war games scheduled next week are routine exercises being implemented as per long standing plans and cannot be linked to any of the regional developments,” Kuwaiti Deputy Prime and Foreign Minister Shaikh Sabah Al Khaled Al Sabah said at a joint Press conference with Arab League Secretary General Nabil Al Arabi here last night.