Vali Esmaili, a member of the Iranian parliamentary commission for home affairs, said that a new bill was developed to merge Abu Musa, Greater and Lesser Tunb into the Persian Gulf Province. The document will be published for the National Day of the Persian Gulf on May 29
, FARS reports.
The three islands are a disputed territory of Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has recently visited Abu Musa. A spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry said that the islands belong to Iran. The commander of Iran’s Ground Forces, Ahmad Reza Purdastan, expressed readiness for military action.
Vladimir Yevseyev, Director of the Russian Center for Socio-Political Studies, told Vestnik Kavkaza that Iran is suspected of activities in Bahrain and causing problems in Kuwait. Iran took control over the islands long before the revolution. But the monarchies failed to retake them. Saudi Arabia could not even protect Kuwait.
The conflict is part of attempts to escalate the conflict around Iran. The last example was seen in Qatar. Real disorders took place and the country is not as sustainable as it used to be, the expert says.
The idea of forming a single province from the islands seems hilarious. It is a response to opponents. The only thing the islands may accommodate is a military garrison. Their only value is their location in the center of the Hormuz Strait. The whole story is part of the information war, Yevseyev says.
Sergey Mikheyev, Director General of the Center for Political Conjuncture, said that new reasons to criticise Iran are being searched for. The US is interested in escalating tensions, it wants something like bloodshed, humanitarian catastrophes and weapons of mass destruction as excuses for legitimate measures. The same scenario happened in Libya and the same is planned for Syria, Mikheyev told Vestnik Kavkaza.
