UAE Denounced for Toeing Anti-Iran US Line

A lawmaker criticized the United Arab Emirates for toeing the US hostile line on Iran after the Arab country's Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan echoed a US call for new curbs on Iran's missile program and regional role.

"The policies of the reactionary Arab countries have always been copied from those of the United States and the Zionist regime of Israel. Sheikh Abdullah's recent remarks reflect that fact," Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh said in a Friday talk with ICANA.

In an article published by the Financial Times on Tuesday, Sheikh Abdullah described the Islamic Republic's regional policies as aggressive and its missile program as a threat.

He claimed that after the 2015 nuclear accord between Iran and the six major powers, "instead of mending its ways, Tehran has pursued a narrow sectarian agenda that is threatening the fragile regional social fabric. The long-term consequences are disastrous."

Fixing that, the top diplomat wrote, requires a concerted international effort to curtail what he contended was Iran's "brazen regional aggression" as well as its ballistic missile program.

He was echoing the excessive demands by US President Donald Trump, who appears determined to follow through an electoral promise to counter the Islamic Republic and the nuclear accord, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. The action plan was negotiated under Trump's predecessor Barack Obama to roll back Tehran's nuclear development in exchange for giving it relief from international sanctions.

Iran and other signatories have rejected Trump's call for the deal to be reopened to accommodate his non-nuclear concerns on Iran, arguing that this is not possible without the deal unraveling because its terms are inextricably intertwined.

  Unrealistic Aspiration

Sheikh Abdullah disputed that argument. "Some may argue that this is an unrealistic aspiration and that regional security issues never were and never should be included in discussions of the JCPOA and inevitably would sink the accord. The UAE disagrees. Without greater progress on these issues, the agreement is doomed to fail. If we allow Tehran to continue down its [alleged] current path of aggression, the accord will lose all its value."

In mid-January, Trump gave the European nations four months to work with his administration to draw up a side agreement on curbing Tehran's non-nuclear activities.

Sheikh Abdullah expressed support for Trump's call for such a deal.

"The UAE hopes that the international community can apply itself with as much rigor and determination to addressing Iran's regional behavior as it brought to the nuclear issue," he added.