Iranian Media Lashes Out at UAE and Bahrain Over GCC Statement

Following the Iranian media’s initial angry reactions to the final statement of the 46th session of the Supreme Council of the Gulf Cooperation Council supporting the sovereignty of the United Arab Emirates over three islands and Kuwaiti and Saudi ownership of an oil field, hard-line Kayhan and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-affiliated Javan launched even sharper attacks. Their tone can be explained by several factors: First, ideologically bankrupt, the regime is attempting to replace Islamism with nationalism as its state ideology. Second, embarrassed by the outcome of the 12-day war in June, the regime feels compelled to project strength. Third, fearing renewed Israeli strikes, the regime is signaling that any retaliation will be directed at Arab states rather than Israel. By doing so, it hopes to encourage energy importers and exporters to pressure Israel not to strike Iran.

• December 6: In hard-line Kayhan, Editor Hossein Shariatmadari wrote:
  • “The offspring of pirates, urbanized by the British, are now claiming three Iranian islands … Today, the people of Bahrain’s principal demand is the return of this province – severed from Iran – to its main and motherland, Islamic Iran. This is the inalienable right of Iran and of the people of that separated province, a right that must not and cannot be ignored … Britain and America decided that Bahrain should be ruled by the Khalifa dynasty, who were previously engaged in banditry in the deserts of Najd.”
  • “The rulers of these so-called countries have repeatedly shown that they do not possess even the slightest independence. A mere glance at their joint positions on regional events makes it abundantly clear that they have never – never – taken a stance that diverged from the officially declared wishes of the United States and Israel. For this reason, the latest statement of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council – which is even more brazen than its previous communiques – cannot be seen as unrelated to the recent defeat of America and Israel in the 12-day war. After all, have we ever seen ‘milk cows’ exercise any will of their own?”
• December 6: In Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-affiliated Javan, Editor Gholam-Reza Sadeqian wrote:
  • “The United Arab Emirates – known until 40 years ago among both Arabs and Persians simply as ‘the sand dunes along the southern shores of the Persian Gulf’ – has, over these four decades, advanced only by paying tribute to its former colonial masters. It has now reached a point in which it pursues its own colonial impulses in Yemen, Sudan, Lebanon, and Syria and has even issued a sharper threat: ‘If you do not return the three islands to the UAE, we will take the matter to the International Court of Justice!’”
  • “These claims reflect the demands of the United States and Europe not the decisions of the sheikhs themselves … As for the three islands, they undoubtedly want them to hand them over to Trump and turn them into a U.S. base, for these islands have rendered the U.S. bases inside the sheikhs’ own territory ineffective more than anything else … If Iran were to begin – formally and informally – pressing each day for the return of Bahrain, the sheikhs might well retreat from their current assertions.”
  • “Therefore, I propose, first, that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs file a complaint at the same court to which the UAE threatens to appeal seeking the return of Bahrain to Iran, even though Iran’s strength does not lie in such formalities. Second, Iran should remind the sheikhs that relying on the United States is either useless or carries the cost of the total looting of their peoples’ wealth. The one eager to ‘milk’ them – and who repeatedly uses that very term – will not be satisfied with anything less than the entirety of the Arabs’ riches. Recognizing Iran’s rights, and indeed relying on Iran, carries no cost – and even yields benefit.”
  • “The ‘sand dunes’ of the Persian Gulf today resemble a balloon that, if punctured, will collapse entirely. The main air is blown into it by the United States. Yet the United States was unwilling to defend Saudi Arabia against Yemen or during the attack on Saudi Aramco or even to prevent the bombing of these countries after receiving a multihundred-million-dollar jumbo jet from Qatar. Sometimes this ‘air’ takes the form of unsupported technological transfers; at other times, it is merely air blown into their heads.”
• December 7: On its front page, reformist Etemad featured the article “Forever Iranian Islands” authored by international public law expert Minoo Khaleqi.

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