TEHRAN A veteran Iranian political analyst here Sunday strongly criticized the deceitful policies of the United Arab Emirates aimed at deceiving public opinion in the Arab world with respect to the three Persian Gulf Islands -- the Lesser and Greater Tunbs and Abu Mussa -- and called for Iran to adopt the right policy with which to advance its case.

Speaking in a gathering of IRNA officials, the London-based Urosevic Foundation Chairman, Pirouz Mojtahedzadeh, said that the UAE has been on a propaganda ploy to advance its claim particularly in the past two years, and that this ploy is basically to convince the region and the world as a whole that the islands are part of the coastal region and that Iran's claim to ownership is based on occupation.

"By simply looking at the world map one will find that Abu Mussa is situated in waters bordering the two countries and the two Tunbs are within Iranian territorial waters," Mojtahedzadeh said.

He said that Britain illegally made a claim to the three Islands and then occupied them in 1903, but returned them to Iran after pressure in 1971.

The London-based Iranian professor termed as "lies" UAE claims of readiness to discuss the issue and Iran's unwillingness, saying high-ranking Iranian delegations have, during visits to the UAE no less than five times, voiced readiness to clear misunderstandings.

He said that former Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati twice in 1993 traveled to the UAE to discuss the problem, but that officials of the country refused to talk with him.

It was later announced that the UAE foreign minister would make a trip to Tehran for talks on the issue but this trip never materialized, with UAE officials sarcastically implying that the foreign minister will travel to Tehran only when the islands are transferred to it.

He continued by saying that in 1996, on Qatar's offer to mediate, Iran dispatched a delegation to Doha which held preliminary talks in a morning session and which was supposed to be continued in the afternoon.

But, he added, UAE officials took part in a press conference outside of the conference room after the morning talks during which they alleged that the talks failed due to Iran's unwillingness to cooperate.

Mojtahedzadeh stressed that the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) also commissioned a three-member committee composed of the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman specifically to clear the way for a resumption of talks.

He said that under internationally recognized guidelines for settling disputes, secondary options are resorted to only when primary solutions prove futile, adding that the key to a solution in this problem would be direct talks.

Regretfully, Mojtahedzadeh said, the UAE has nothing substantial to offer in a discussion and, therefore, tries to push its objectives by waging a war of lies over the media.

Iranian embassies in the region should counter the UAE war of propaganda by convincing the mass media in the Arab world of the truth, that is, that Iran has never staked its claim over the islands on the basis of occupation, the Iranian professor said.

He said Britain returned the Lesser and Greater Tunbs to Iran without any precondition and, as far as the Abu Mussa is concerned, a letter of understanding exists between Iran and Sharjah.

Mojtahedzadeh strongly criticized a PGCC threat, made after a summit last week that Iran could be "isolated" if it continues in its stance over the islands.

(IRNA)