Iran Strongly Responds to Recent Gulf Cooperation Council and EU Statements

Esmail Baghaei, the spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, dismissed claims made in a joint statement by the Foreign Ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the European Union, including repeated assertions by the United Arab Emirates regarding the Iranian islands of Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb, and Abu Musa, as well as alleged interference in Iran’s defense and nuclear policies. He warned against the destructive and divisive interventions of certain European countries in Gulf regional affairs.

Baghaei strongly reaffirmed Iran’s indisputable and perpetual sovereignty over the islands, describing them as an integral part of Iran’s territorial domain. He stressed that repeating baseless claims in political statements carries no legal weight and does not alter geographical realities or historical facts.

The spokesperson expressed appreciation for Iranian nationals, including those residing in Europe, who have condemned the malicious interference of external actors in regional affairs and the propagation of false territorial claims against Iran. He advised the southern Gulf neighbors to focus on building mutual trust and strengthening regional friendship, instead of repeating stereotypical claims against Iran’s territorial integrity or facilitating external interventions, and to collectively confront the greatest threat to peace and stability in the region — the Zionist regime.

Baghaei also condemned the divisive actions of certain EU member states, including Germany and France, which, besides providing extensive support to Israel — the only nuclear-armed regime in the region — impose their political agendas on the EU as a whole. He warned that the EU’s unwarranted interference in Gulf and Oman Sea affairs does not help resolve regional conflicts, but instead highlights its duplicity and divisive policies toward Iran and the wider Gulf region.

The spokesperson described claims regarding Iran’s defense capabilities in the GCC–EU joint statement as unwarranted and unacceptable interference in Iran’s national sovereignty. He emphasized that parties who have spent hundreds of billions of dollars acquiring weapons to turn the region into an arsenal of advanced destructive arms — while remaining inactive in the face of the aggressive ambitions of the Zionist regime — are in no position to comment on Iran’s domestically developed and indigenous defense capabilities.

Baghaei further criticized the breaches of commitment and poor, non-independent, and bad-faith performance by three European countries that are party to the JCPOA, noting their misuse of the dispute resolution mechanism to reinstate previously revoked UN Security Council resolutions. He called it shameful that the very parties responsible for the current situation now position themselves as arbiters. Simultaneously, he expressed regret that some GCC members, instead of holding the EU accountable on West Asian issues, have provided a platform for the EU’s duplicity.