TEHRAN – Iran has summoned the chargé d'affaires of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) over the UAE coast guard’s act of shooting at a number of Iranian fishing boats in the Persian Gulf on Monday in which two fishermen were killed.

In a statement on Thursday, the Foreign Ministry said right after the incident, relevant Iranian officials put on their agenda an immediate investigation into the tragic event.

According to the statement, after the situation on the ground was carefully examined, the UAE envoy was summoned to the ministry in the early hours of the following days by the director of the International Legal Affairs Department of the ministry.

At the ministry, the Iranian diplomat condemned the UAE vessels’ harassment of the Iranian fishing boats, saying the responsibility for this illegal and out-of-norm move rests with the UAE government.

He stressed that those arrested, as well as the fishing boats seized, must be released, and bodies of those killed must be handed over to Iran. 

The diplomat also demanded compensation for the damage and called on the UAE to take the necessary measures to prevent such events in the future.

The UAE charge affairs, for his part, expressed regret over the incident and underlined that he will inform Abu Dhabi of the developments accordingly.

In less than 24 hours, another meeting was also held between the UAE envoy and the Iranian official to follow up on the outcome of the previous talks.

Following these developments in Tehran and thanks to efforts by the Iranian embassy in the UAE, the Abu Dhabi government sent an official note to Tehran expressing deep sorrow over the incident and expressed its readiness to make up for all the damage inflicted.

Also, through the coordination of both countries’ border guards, the seized fishing boat and its crew were released.

The incident comes amid Tehran’s strong condemnation of Abu Dhabi for agreeing to normalize ties with Israel under a deal brokered by the U.S.

The deal was announced on August 13, after a phone call between Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, according to Aljazeera.

Iran has called the UAE move a treasonous act against the Palestinian cause.

President Hassan Rouhani has warned Abu Dhabi that the agreement must never prepare the ground for the presence of the Zionist regime in the Persian Gulf.

MH/PA