Addressing the rulers of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Ali Akbar Velayati, Senior Adviser to the Leader on International Affairs, asked: “Are Iran’s repeated unsubstantiated claims about its islands part of cooperation with its suzerain?” “The Iranian people’s patience is not limitless,” he stressed.
Velayati posted a statement on the X social media platform today, Friday, saying there is a need to clearly declare what he has so far avoided publicly. He wrote, “We have to ask the UAE government: What were you doing in Yemen? Are you also interested in ownership of the Strait of Bab al-Mandab? Why did you occupy Socotra and what does it have to do with America’s maritime ambitions? Are you also claiming ownership of this island and the Strait of Hormuz?”
He added: “Your expansionist policies have spilled the blood of tens of thousands of Muslims in Yemen and now Sudan. We must now ask: What does the UAE want in Sudan and why are you taking actions that will divide this country?”
Velayati went on to question whether the UAE is collaborating with the UK in Sudan and why many analysts perceive the UAE’s actions to be indicative of an attempt to establish a “paranoid transnational empire.”
“Are Iran’s repeated baseless claims about the islands part of its cooperation with its suzerains? How can anyone claim ownership of Abu Musa Island, which belonged to Iran thousands of years before the establishment of the UAE? The Iranian people’s patience is not limitless,” he said.
MNA/