The Secretary-General of the United Nations
United Nations Headquarters
405 East 42nd Street
New York, NY, 10017, USA.
July 30, 2023
Excellency Antonio Guterres
The Iran Cooperation Pact (ICP), consisting of 6 political organizations which represent a significant portion of the opposition organizations to the Islamic regime of Iran, wishes to bring to your attention the following concern about the recent meeting between the Foreign Ministers of Russia and Southern Persian Gulf States held in Moscow on July 10, 2023. Their support for the United Arab Emirates stating, “to reach a peaceful solution to the dispute over the three islands: Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb, and Abu Musa, through bilateral negotiations or the International Court of Justice”, is utterly illegitimate and aberrative. The ICP warns discussing the Iranian strategic islands of Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb, and Abu Musa in the Moscow meeting is emphatically pernicious, endangering peace and friendship between the nations in the Middle East.
Iran’s sovereignty over the three islands has its roots in the 2500 years of history of Iran. These islands were occupied by the British Empire in 1948, due to the weakness of the Iranian government at the time. But until 1971, when these islands were returned to Iran, none of Iran’s governments accepted British occupation, and the islands have always been an integral part of Iran’s sovereign territory.
The three islands were returned to Iran on November 30, 1971, after the agreement between Iran and Great Britain and before the establishment of the United Arab Emirates. It was agreed that the two islands of Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb were to return to Iran without any memorandum of understanding, but the island of Abu Musa, through an understanding between Iran and Sharjah by entrusting the security of the entire island to Iran. The agreement between Iran and Sharjah was signed on November 27, 1971, under the supervision of the British Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Iran considers these islands as belonging to Iran based on the historical, and cultural background, and the 1971 agreements. Therefore, the ICP protest in the strongest term, discussion on 3 strategic islands of Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb, and Abu Musa by Russia-GCC is illegitimate, illegal, and unacceptable to the Iranian people.
The ICP reiterates its concern and warns that making such a claim is like sowing the seeds of enmity and will make the Middle East region more tense and more unstable, contrary to the spirit of the Security Council resolution 2686.
Further, the ICP declares Islamic regime in Iran does not represent the people of Iran, hence any mutual international contract/agreement, particularly any dialogue, or any agreement on Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb, and Abu Musa with the United Arab Emirates has no legal legitimacy and it is declared null.
Respectfully,
For the ICP Dr Mohammad Farsi, MBE
