Letter from 20 Activists to Guterres Regarding the Three Islands: The UN Should Defend Iran's Territorial Integrity

A group of civil, human rights activists, and prominent political prisoners in Iran have sent a letter to Antonio Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, criticizing the positions of China and Russia regarding the three islands. They demand his intervention and support for Iran's territorial integrity against the UAE's claims over Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb, and Abu Musa in the Persian Gulf. In the letter published on Wednesday, June 30, on the Telegram channel 'National Solidarity for Democracy in Iran,' the activists state that 'the current regime ruling over the ancient land of Iran, which governs the Iranian people through the force of guns, prisons, and executions, is in no way a true and official representative of the Iranian people.' The signatories assert that the Islamic Republic government 'is in the worst and weakest domestic and international position due to its unwise and anti-national policies,' adding that 'some high-profile foreign officials are exploiting the weaknesses of the Islamic Republic's governance to gain concessions from the southern Gulf states at the expense of Iran's national interests.' The letter emphasizes that 'the baseless claims of ownership by the United Arab Emirates over the three Iranian islands of Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb, and Abu Musa in the Persian Gulf are being stirred by senior politicians in China and Russia to provoke and encourage them to collaborate in the seizure of those islands.' According to the signatories, Russia and China 'after making huge profits' from the Islamic Republic, now 'want to trade Iran's territory' and based on 'documented and substantiated historical evidence' affirming Iran's ownership of the islands, including 'British Army maps from 1888 and Article 27 of the Vienna Convention in 1969, as well as the UN Security Council's response in 1971 to the complaint of the Sharjah Sheikhdom,' the UAE's claims and actions represent 'a clear case of opportunism, greed, and encroachment on Iran's territorial integrity.' The activists stress that 'these 20th-century territorial and oil ambitions can lead to another devastating war in the region, contributing to the persistence of bloody tensions in the Middle East.' The authors of the letter also tell the UN Secretary-General that 'the people of Iran will never compromise on their national interests and territorial sovereignty and will defend every inch of their homeland with their lives,' and that 'any agreement or treaty that harms the Iranian people and disregards the territorial integrity of our country by the Islamic Republic with other countries will not be recognized by the Iranian people and will lose its legitimacy due to the signing of such treaties by non-elected representatives of the Iranian people.' They have asked Antonio Guterres to 'intervene in this matter' and added: 'Considering all the existing documents and historical records, dissuade the UAE from making such claims.' The names of activists and political prisoners, including 'Zartosht Ahmadinejad Raghb, Kamal Jafari Yazdi, Eisa Khan Hatami, Kourosh Zaeim, Gohar Eshghi, Khosrow Ali-Kordi, Javad Laleh Mohammadi, Abdolrasool Mortazavi, Mohammad Nourizad, and Abbas Vahidian Shahroudi,' are among the signatories of this letter. Concurrently, with the continuation of the Islamic Republic's 'Look to the East' policy and the closeness of the Iranian government with China and Russia, these two countries have repeatedly supported the UAE's claim of ownership over the three islands in the Persian Gulf.