Arab Group at UN flays visit

The Arab Group at the United Nations in a letter to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the visit of Iranian President Ahmadinejad to the UAE’s Abu Mousa Island which is occupied by Iran since 1971. Meanwhile, they have also called to put an end to the Iranian occupation of the three UAE islands of Abu Mousa and Greater and Lesser Tunbs. The letter addressed on behalf of the Arab Group, by the UAE’s permanent representative to the UN, Ahmed Abdul Rahman Al Jaramain, expressed the Arab Group’s concern on Ahmadinejad’s visit as the first visit of any top-level Iranian official to the island, stressing that the visit is a flagrant violation of the principles of UN Charter and norms of international law. The letter explained that the decision of the Arab Group is in conformity with the decisions of the Arab League rejecting the occupation of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the three UAE islands and demanding an end to its occupation. It also renewed absolute support of countries of the Arab Group to full sovereignty of the UAE over its three islands in addition to supporting all peaceful measures and means adopted by the State’s Government to restore its sovereignty over the occupied islands, including the initiative calling for resolving the issue of the islands through direct negotiations or by resorting to the International Court of Justice. In a related development, a section of the media reported that Iran’s claims to the three occupied UAE islands of Abu Mousa and Greater and Lesser Tunb are based on the re-writing of history. The report noted that the islands have been part of the Emirates for over 250 years. It described the response from Iran to the UAE criticism of the visit to Abu Mousa last week by Iran’s President Ahmadinejad as “bombastic and aggressive.”