Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi accused the United Arab Emirates of helping and facilitating military attacks against Iran, saying Abu Dhabi had “betrayed” Tehran during the war.
Speaking at the BRICS foreign ministers meeting in New Delhi, Gharibabadi rejected what he called “baseless claims” by the UAE foreign minister that Iran had attacked the country and was the aggressor.
“The United Arab Emirates played a significant role in supporting and facilitating military aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Gharibabadi said, according to ISNA.
He said that under a 1974 UN General Assembly resolution, countries that provide facilities and services to aggressors are not merely helping them but are committing aggression themselves.
“The UAE is an aggressor, not a helper of aggressors,” he said.
Gharibabadi said Iran had warned regional countries, including the UAE, before the attacks began that if they helped the United States and Israel or made their territory and facilities available, Tehran would exercise what he called its right to self-defense.
“We had no choice but to attack all the facilities of US bases in the UAE, or any facilities and installations in the UAE in which the United States has a share or participation,” he said. “This was a war, and in that war we defended our country.”
He said Iran had no war with its neighbors and had told regional states that its war was with Israel and the United States, “not with neighbors and not with the United Arab Emirates.”
Gharibabadi said the UAE was trying to portray itself as a victim, while “the real victim is the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
He added that the UAE had “not only betrayed the Islamic Republic of Iran as a neighboring country, but is also betraying the Palestinian cause,” accusing Abu Dhabi of inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the war and acting as “the representative and protector of Israel’s interests” at BRICS and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
