TEHRAN – Iran’s foreign
ministry says the three Iranian islands in the Persian Gulf are eternal parts of the country’s territory.
Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh reacted to a recent statement by the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) at a session in Riyadh about the Iranian islands of Abu Musa, Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb.
“Even an inch of the homeland’s soil is like all of Iran,” Khatibzadeh wrote in a Persian-language tweet, adding “the trio of islands is the eternal territory of honorable Iran in the heart of the Persian Gulf and a source of pride to the homeland”.
“We kiss the hands of our valiant border guards who have stood firm to protect every inch of this precious soil.”
Khatibzadeh also attached to his Twitter post photos of his visit to Iran’s maritime borders in the Persian Gulf in February 2021.
The strategically-positioned islands of Abu Musa, Lesser Tunb, and Greater Tunb have always been part of Iran, the proof of which are countless historical, legal, and geographical documents in Iran and other parts of the world.
Tehran has on numerous occasions stoutly rejected claims leveled by the Persian Gulf countries to the three Iranian islands, saying that they definitely belong to Iran and will remain sovereign Iranian territories forever.
On Thursday, Khatibzadeh said Iran strongly condemns “any claim about these islands as interference in its internal affairs and territorial integrity”.
Last September, Iran’s Ambassador to the United Nations Majid Takht-Ravanchi dismissed the United Arab Emirates’ “baseless” claims to the three islands, stressing that they are an “inseparable” part of the Iranian territory.