ABU DHABI
The United Arab Emirates said on Wednesday that its ties and its international and defence partnerships were a “purely sovereign matter,” rejecting an earlier statement by Iran saying that Abu Dhabi’s cooperation with the US threatened Iran’s security and national interests.
The UAE’s foreign ministry said the Gulf country reserves its full sovereign, legal, diplomatic and military rights to respond to any “threat, allegation or hostile act”.
It emphasised that “the UAE’s international relations and defence partnerships are an exclusively sovereign matter, and that no party has the right to use them as a pretext for threats, interference, or incitement”.
It added that that “any rhetoric involving direct or indirect threats to the country’s security, its civilian and critical infrastructure, or the safety of its citizens, residents, and visitors constitutes unacceptable conduct that contravenes the principles of good neighbourliness, international law, and the UN Charter”.
Tehran has often taken issue with the UAE’s close ties with the United States and its normalisation with Israel.
The intensified spat between the two countries come after the UAE reported being attacked in the past days by Iran after four weeks of relative calm since the ceasefire was announced by the US Iran denied carrying out operations against the UAE in recent days, yet other officials in Tehran acknowledged the attacks. Iran has also threatened the UAE with a “crushing response” if any action was launched from its territory against Iran.