UAE lodges complaints against Iran

The United Arab Emirates has lodged protests against Iran to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan over Iran's inauguration of a municipality center on Abu Mousa island at the beginning of February.

The UAE representative at the UN, Muhammad Jasem al-Nu'eimi, told journalists that on Thursday he delivered a message to Annan along with a copy of his government's note to the Iranian embassy in Abu Dhabi in protest of the Iranian action.

Al-Nueimi added in his statement to reporters on Friday that this Iranian act "constitutes a flagrant violation to an illegal status and an attempt to perpetuate the occupation of the island."

On February 6, Iranian Minister of the Interior Abdul Wahid Mousawi Lari inaugurated a municipality in Abu Mousa Island on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of launching the Iranian revolution in 1979.

Abu Mousa is one of the three Arab Gulf states over which the UAE disputes sovereignty with Iran. They are located at the entrance to the Shat al-Arab (Arab Gulf) which is also referred to as the Persian Gulf, an issue that is given symbolic important by some.