TEHRAN – Iran reacted strongly to a repetitious ownership claim over its islands of Greater and Lesser Tunbs and Abu Musa in the Persian Gulf, insisting that such claims are contrary to “historical facts”.

In their final statement in Doha on Tuesday the Arab leaders again repeated claims over the Iranian islands by the United Arab Emirates.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi said the islands have been an “inseparable part” of the Iranian land and that such claims “have no influence on Iran’s sovereignty” over the islands.
Qashqavi said the repetition of such old and baseless claims will only detach the Islamic world’s attention from the “rising threats of the Zionist regime” to the oppressed Palestinian nation especially the agonies of the Gaza people.
A senior Iranian cleric, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, also told worshippers in Tehran on Friday that the three islands will “remain Iranian eternally”.
The UAE first made ownership claims over the Iranian island of Abu Musa. After a few years it extended its claim to the two other islands of Greater and Lesser Tunbs