Page 9 - MEOG Week 34 2022

MEOG POLICY & SECURITY MEOG

Kuwait and UAE send ambassadors

to Iran after six-year absence

GULF KUWAIT and the UAE have appointed an had made some progress, but “not enough”.
ambassador to Iran more than six years after Meanwhile, UAE Ambassador to Iran Saif
their top diplomats were recalled from Tehran, Mohammed Al Zaabi will begin work in Tehran
acting in solidarity with ally Saudi Arabia after in the coming days, according to reports from
it in January 2016 broke off relations with the the Emirati Foreign Ministry on August 21.
Islamic Republic, Iranian official news agency Dubai, despite being under the official rule
IRNA has reported. of fellow emirate of Abu Dhabi has continued
Iran has maintained low-level relations with to trade with Iran continuing to be the largest
its oil-rich neighbours to the south. The upgrad- intermediary trade up for the Islamic Republic.
ing of relations appears to be in line with recent The UAE Ambassador to Iran was recalled in
moves by Iran and Saudi Arabia to restore their January 2016, as the Emirates explained at the
ties. Riyadh severed diplomatic relations with time, due to “Iran’s ongoing interference in the
Tehran after Iranian protesters stormed the internal affairs of the Arab countries of the Per-
Saudi embassy in Iran, protesting at the exe- sian Gulf, which has recently reached unprece-
cution of a prominent Shiite cleric in the Saudi dented levels.”
kingdom. The decision to return the ambassador
Kuwait’s chosen envoy, Ambassador Bader was made “in line with the UAE’s efforts to
Abdullah Al-Munaih, presented his credentials strengthen relations with Iran and as part of a
to Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Ab- previous decision to upgrade diplomatic rep-
dollahian on August 13 in Tehran, according to resentation to the rank of ambassador.”
the website of the Iranian Foreign Ministry. Warming in relations between Abu Dhabi
The Kuwait Ministry of Foreign Affairs con- and Tehran was outlined at the end of last year.
firmed that Munaih had been appointed ambas- On December 6, Emirati National Security
sador to Iran. Adviser Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan
Kuwait has stuck to relatively good relations visited the Iranian capital and held talks with
with Tehran as part of a foreign policy that bal- his colleague Ali Shamkhani, as well as with the
ances ties with its larger neighbours. An ongoing President of the Islamic Republic, Ebrahim Raisi,
dispute over the rights to various parts of a gas as a result of which the parties planned to expand
field in the Gulf is one difficulty that could strain cooperation.
relations. After that, a series of high-level telephone
Sunni Muslim powerhouse Saudi Arabia conversations were held. In July this year, UAE
began direct talks with Iran on normalising rela- Presidential Advisor Anwar Gargash announced
tions last year. The kingdom’s foreign minister plans to increase the level of diplomatic relations
said lately that five rounds of Iraq-brokered talks between Tehran and Abu Dhabi.™

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