Iran International:

Syria's signature on the Arab League Summit declaration in Bahrain, which included the UAE's claim over three Iranian islands, has sparked a backlash in Iranian media, with one commentator calling it a "stab in the back."

Iran’s leading ‘reformist’ daily criticized Tehran's ally Syrian President Bashar Assad for signing the declaration, and Iran's leading economic newspaper, Donyaye Eghtesad (World of Economy), said the declaration “disregarded the historical facts that demonstrate Iran's ownership of the three islands."

The Arab League summit statement this week included a clause reaffirming "the sovereignty of the United Arab Emirates over its three islands (Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa)."

The three islands in the Persian Gulf have been in dispute since the British withdrew their armed forces in 1971 from what today is the United Arab Emirates. Iran's Mohammad Reza Shah ordered the Iranian navy to secure all three in November of that year. Iranian forces remain on the islands, with only Abu Musa having much of a civilian population of several thousand.

Influential Iranian commentator and former senior lawmaker Hesmatollah Falahatpisheh wrote on Sunday that he had warned in 2019 about the likelihood of Assad "stabbing Iran in the back."
Although Iran has sent thousands of fighters to Syria during the Syrian war and provided intelligence to keep Assad in power, his latest move suggests he doesn’t share Iran’s sentiment.

After pro-democracy protests erupted in 2011 in Syria, President Bashar Assad turned the tide of civil war with the help of Iranian proxy militias and a significant military intervention by the Russian government in 2015.

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