• Home

Parliament’s pressure urged on UAE islands issue

CAIRO — Deputy Speaker of the Arab Parliament, Dr Mustafa Al Faqee, said that parliamentary pressure should be exerted on Iran to make it respond to the UAE’s demands on its three islands.

Al Faqee told Wam that the parliaments of all Arab countries should exert some kind of pressure on Teheran on the issue.

He said that he will present this idea to the speaker of the Arab Parliament Mohammed Jassem Al Sagar for tabling the subject in the next parliamentary session.

The Arab Parliament, set up by an agreement by member countries in the Arab League earlier in 2001, consists of 44 MPs representing 22 countries.

The UAE should never abandon its right to the three islands. At the same time, it is not desirable too that it rushes the issue into the arena of US-Iran confrontation over the Iranian nuclear programme, Al Faqee said.

He said that the islands issue should constitute a separate issue in the direct relations between the UAE and Iran.

Answering a question whether there is any practical method other than mentioning the issue at the international forums, Al Faqee stressed the need for raising the issue, but without mixing it with the US-Iran conflict.

“We don’t share the same trench with America against Iran in the issue of islands, as Iran is a neighbouring Muslim country,” the deputy speaker of Arab parliament said.

However, he expressed hope that “Iran will behave differently with Arab countries”. —