3 Persian Gulf islands are ‘inseparable’ parts of Iran’s territory: UN envoy

TEHRAN, April 26 (MNA) – The deputy head of the Iranian mission to the United Nations said that the three Persian Gulf islands of Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs are “inseparable” parts of Iran’s territory. Es’haq Ale-Habib made the remarks during a speech at a meeting of the UN Security Council on the situation in the Middle East region in New York on Tuesday in response to UAE officials’ recent criticism of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to the Iranian island of Abu Musa on April 11. The UAE claimed on April 11 that Ahmadinejad’s visit to Abu Musa Island had been “a flagrant violation of the United Arab Emirates’ sovereignty over its territory and a transgression of efforts to find a peaceful settlement to end Iranian occupation of the three UAE islands.” The UAE has repeatedly questioned Iran’s sovereignty over the three Persian Gulf islands of Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs and urged Tehran to agree to take the dispute to the International Court of Justice in The Hague or engage in direct negotiations. In his speech, Ale-Habib said that President Ahmadinejad’s visit to Abu Musa Island had been made based on the principle of territorial integrity. Israel’s nuclear arsenal a threat to world peace Elsewhere in his remarks, the Iranian envoy commented on Israeli allegations that Tehran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons and said that the Zionist regime poses a great danger to regional and world peace given its large nuclear arsenal. In addition, Ale-Habib spoke about Israeli settlement construction on the occupied Palestinian territories, calling on the UN Security Council to take the measures necessary to halt it. He also called on the council to take actions to end the atrocities being committed by the Zionist regime in Palestine, particularly in the Gaza strip. Iran supports Annan’s peace plan for Syria On the situation in Syria, Ale-Habib emphasized that the crisis in Syria should be resolved peacefully and through diplomatic channels, reiterating Iran’s support for the plan put forward by Kofi Annan, who is the UN-Arab League joint special envoy on Syria. Annan has put forward a six-point peace plan for ending the one-year crisis in Syria, which calls for a UN-supervised ceasefire by all parties, the withdrawal of soldiers and heavy weapons from cities, and the delivery of humanitarian assistance.