UAE: Iran must stop arming and funding extremists

The United Arab Emirates has called on the Iranian regime to stop arming, funding and enabling radical, violent and extremist entities.

Addressing the United Nations Security Council, the UAE Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, Lana Zaki Nusseibeh, said that a major cause of instability in the Middle East was the “rise in the rampant use of force against the territorial integrity, sovereignty and political independence of states.”

While the UAE welcome the nuclear agreement reached with Iran last year, the hope for a more constructive Iranian role in the region has failed to materialise, said Nusseibeh.

In late January, the United Arab Emirates’ Ambassador to the US also accused the Iranian regime of continuing to spread instability in the region after the nuclear deal.

“Since the signing of the nuclear deal, we have seen nothing but more Iranian aggression,” said Yousef Al Otaiba.

Speaking at the Centre for International and Strategic Studies think tank in Washington on 29 January, the Ambassador pointed to Iranian military support for Houthi rebels in Yemen and the Bashar Al Assad regime in Syria as key illustrations of Tehran’s destabilising policies in Arab countries.