Defense advisor to Leader warns Persian Gulf bloc not to play with Iran’s ‘red lines’
A representative of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei at the Defense Council has warned the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) against “unconstructive” claims regarding the three Iranian islands and the Arash gas field.
Ali Shamkhani issued the warning in a post on his X account on Thursday in reaction to the final communiqué of the 46th GCC Summit, held in Bahrain on Wednesday.
In its communiqué, the council reiterated its long-standing position on the Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb, and Abu Musa islands in the Persian Gulf, renewing its full support for the UAE's claim of sovereignty over the three islands. The council emphasized that these islands are an integral part of the UAE's territory.
The communiqué also claimed that the entire ownership of the Arash gas field lies within Kuwait's territorial waters, and that all its natural resources fall solely within the Kuwaiti-Saudi Divided Submerged Zone.
In his post, Shamkhani described the issues as Iran's red lines.
"The role of neighbors is to create security, not to play with the red lines of the Iranian nation,” he said.
He warned that the GCC’s “unconstructive" claims regarding the Iranian islands and the Arash field were raised again amid the malicious acts of the United States and the Israeli regime.
The Leader’s representative emphasized that Iran exercised restraint during the 12 days of Israeli-American war in mid-June despite some states supporting the aggression, warning "Iran's power in the Persian Gulf should not be misinterpreted."
The Persian Gulf islands of Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs have historically belonged to Iran, a fact corroborated by numerous historical, legal, and geographical records both in Iran and internationally. However, the United Arab Emirates has repeatedly laid claim to the islands.
The islands fell under British control in 1921, but on November 30, 1971, a day after British forces left the region and just two days before the UAE was to become an official federation, Iran’s sovereignty over the islands was restored.
The dispute over the Arash gas field, which Kuwaitis call al-Durra, dates back to the 1960s when Iran and Kuwait were awarded overlapping offshore concessions for the field following its discovery.
The field is estimated to hold 20 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves, with production capacity of one billion cubic feet per day. Nearly 40% of the Arash gas field is located in Iranian waters.
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