SHAFAQNA – The minister of foreign Affair in UAE Anwer said: Iran’s “inherently sectarian” policy is undermining ties between the Islamic republic and Gulf Cooperation Council countries, said Anwar Gargash, the United Arab Emirates’ minister of state for foreign affairs .Gargash, in a speech delivered today in Abu Dhabi, said Iran was interfering in the affairs of Arab countries including Bahrain, Yemen, Syria, Iraq and “most recently and dramatically Yemen.”
Yemen’s Shiite Houthi rebels have seized key cities in the country as the authority of the GCC-backed central government crumbles. The Houthis took control of the crossing along Saudi Arabia’s southern border this month. Shiite-ruled Iran supports the rebels’ “rightful fight,” Ali Akbar Velayati, senior adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said yesterday, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency.
“The continued expansionism of Iranian influence in the Arab world poses a major problem in GCC-Iran relations, as well as Arab-Iranian relations more broadly,” said Gargash. “The fact that this foreign policy is inherently sectarian further exacerbates the tension in the region.”
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has pledged to seek to improve the country’s ties with the Sunni-ruled GCC countries, which include the U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia.
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