Iran condemns baseless claims by the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council and the European Union

Ismail Baghaei, the Foreign Ministry spokesperson, rejected the interventionist and baseless claims raised in the joint communiqué of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council –EU foreign ministers’ meeting — including the repetition of the UAE’s claim over the Iranian islands of Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb, and Abu Musa — as well as the unwarranted interference in Iran’s defensive matters and its nuclear issue. He also warned against the destructive and divisive interference of certain European countries in the affairs of the Persian Gulf region.

Emphasizing Iran’s absolute and permanent sovereignty over the Iranian islands of Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb, and Abu Musa as an inseparable part of Iran’s territorial integrity, Baghaei stated that repeating such baseless claims in political statements holds no legal value and cannot alter geographical realities or historical facts.

Baghaei expressed appreciation for all Iranian compatriots, including those residing in Europe, who have contacted the Foreign Ministry and Iran’s diplomatic missions in Europe to denounce the malicious meddling of extra-regional actors and the promotion of false territorial claims against the homeland. He advised the southern Persian Gulf neighbors to focus instead on strengthening mutual trust and fostering friendship among regional countries — rather than repeating clichéd claims against Iran’s territorial integrity and paving the way for destructive external interference — and to confront the greatest threat to regional peace and stability, namely the Zionist regime.

Condemning the subversive behavior of certain EU member states, including Germany and France, which, while offering full support to the genocidal Israeli regime — the only nuclear-armed entity in the region — impose their own political ambitions upon the entire Union, Baghaei remarked that the EU’s unwarranted involvement in the affairs of the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman will not help resolve Europe’s internal disputes and challenges. Rather, it exposes the Union’s deceitful and divisive policies toward Iran and the entire Persian Gulf region.

The spokesperson also dismissed the allegations raised in the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council –EU joint statement concerning Iran’s defensive capabilities as unwarranted and unacceptable interference in matters related to Iran’s national sovereignty. He stressed that those who have turned the Persian Gulf region into a vast arsenal of advanced weaponry through hundreds of billions of dollars in arms deals — while remaining silent on the expansionist policies of a genocidal and aggressor regime, or even supporting it militarily and politically — have no authority to comment on the indigenous and self-reliant defensive capabilities of the Iranian nation.

Referring to the bad faith, poor performance, and lack of independence of the three European signatories to the JCPOA, whose abuse of the deal’s dispute-resolution mechanism to restore annulled UN Security Council resolutions marked the height of their duplicity, Baghaei stated: “It is shameful that those responsible for the current situation now pose as claimants.”

He added that it is regrettable that the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council member states, instead of holding the EU accountable on various issues related to West Asia, have provided a platform for its deceitful blame-shifting.