GCC supports UAE over island issue

The secretary general of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Sheikh Jamil al-Hujeilan, has expressed his support for the protest expressed by the United Arab Emirates against Iran's opening of a municipality headquarters on Abu Mousa island and in viewing this Iranian act as a perpetuation of its occupation of the island.

In a statement released today by the GCC General Secretariat in Riyadh, Sheikh al-Hujeilan said that, "The GCC have always asserted in its official meetings' successive statements its backing to the UAE in its legitimate right to restore its three islands -- Greater Tanb, Lesser Tanb and Abu Mousa -- occupied by Iran.

He added that these statements had always called upon Iran to comply with the repeated calls advocated by the UAE to maintain a settlement for the islands by means of direct negotiations between Iran and the UAE or to resort to the International Court of Justice.

Sheikh Hujeilan added that Iran's response to the call of the UAE to settle the dispute over the island will, to a large extent, contribute to strengthening relations the GCC member states always seek to rebuild with Iran, noting that Iran's persistence on its current position will not serve these relations.