GCC rejects Iran claim, says 'Gulf is Arab'

Interior ministers of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council on Tuesday denounced Iranian claims and said the Gulf did not exclusively belong to Iran. "The Gulf is Arab and it will remain as it is," the ministers said in a statement after a meeting in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. The GCC ministers said remarks by an Iranian official Saturday were "provocative, irresponsible and contrary to the principles of good neighbourliness, mutual respect and non-interference."
The chief of staff of Iran's armed forces General Hassan Firouzabadi had denounced what he called an "Arab dictatorial front" and claimed that the "Persian Gulf had belonged to Iran for ever." In the initial reaction, GCC chiefs on Monday slammed the statement as "aggressive." "The Gulf belongs to all states on its shores, and Iran has no right to claim otherwise as it owns nothing from the Gulf but its territorial waters," GCC Secretary General Abdullatif al-Zayani said in a statement on Monday.