GCC in no position to comment on Iran's missile program, defense policies: Foreign Ministry

Iran has condemned baseless claims made by the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) against the Islamic Republic, especially about its national defense program, saying the body is in no position to comment about the country’s missile program and issues pertaining to its military and defense policies.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh on Thursday rejected the anti-Iran allegations made in a statement by the GCC at the end of their 152nd session of the Ministerial Council in Riyadh and said such “repetitive and destructive” statements show a “completely wrong approach” adopted by some member states and their “strategic confusion” vis-à-vis the Islamic Republic.

He pointed to the statement’s claims about Iran’s nuclear program and its negotiations with the P4+1 group of countries in the Austrian capital of Vienna on the revival of the US-abandoned 2015 deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and said raising such issues only demonstrates the depth of the council’s inattention to the obvious facts, which would bring nothing but discredit for the GCC.

“While this council has turned into the largest arsenal of American and Western weapons in the world, it is not in a position to comment on the missile program and issues related to military and deterrent policies [of Iran],” the spokesperson said.

The Saudi-led GCC, in its statement, described Iran’s nuclear program as a “challenge” facing the body. It also accused Iran of supporting “terrorism” and “destabilizing behavior” in the region, among others.

He said the issuance of such “clichéd” statements pursues no special purpose but creating a regional crisis and is apparently aimed at neutralizing the results of Iran’s diplomatic engagement with its neighbors.

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Khatibzadeh once again reiterated that the three Iranian islands of Abu Musa, Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb are an “integral and eternal” part of Iran’s territory, adding that the country strongly condemns “any claim about these islands as interference in its internal affairs and territorial integrity.”

“The repetition of such interventionist positions in any form is completely rejected and will have no effect on the existing legal and historical realities,” the senior Iranian diplomat said.

He emphasized that Iran, based on its strategic approach and principled policies, has always believed that interaction and cooperation with the neighboring states are the solution to regional issues and “welcomes affirmative initiatives in the field of the expansion of relations based on international principles and rules.”

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