Qatar warns against attacking Iran

The emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, has warned that Doha will not allow any country to turn the Persian Gulf into a war zone, PressTV reported.
His remarks on the subject come in an environment of long-standing US and Israel threats to launch an attack against Iranian nuclear installations under the pretext that Tehran, a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), is planning to secretly weaponize its civilian use nuclear program.

The international nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has strongly denied the charge with. IAEA chief Mohammad elBaradei stating he would resign if Iran is attacked on this pretext.

Tehran insists that its program is purely for electricity generation.

"There is no diversity of opinions between Iran and members of the (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council over the country's nuclear program,", Sheikh al-Thani who is the current head of the (P)GCC, told reporters during a summit in Syria.

Noting that the (P)GCC seeks a long term relationship with the Islamic Republic, al-Thani added that tension in the region is not to the benefit of any county.

"With the exception of the UAE, no Persian Gulf state has a problem with Iran. The conflict between them is because of the three disputed islands. We support the proposition of taking this dispute to the International Court of Justice so it can be resolved," he said.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) frequently makes territorial claims against the Islamic Republic, claiming that it owns the three islands of Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa.

While Iran clearly has sovereign rights over the islands, Abu Dhabi has managed to gain the support of other regional Arab states.

The islands were formally returned to Iranian sovereignty by Great Britain on November 30th 1971, when it abandoned all its Persian Gulf protectorates and territories through a legal process before the state now known as the UAE came into existence and the al-Nahyan family assumed leadership of the nascent entity.

According to international convention, no state can fail to recognize the legitimacy of any agreements that have come into force before its creation unless such agreements had been officially declared as null and void by the newly created state.

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