Iran Claims Gulf States Opened Territory and Airspace to U.S.

Iranian state news agencies reported on Thursday, April 23, that Amir Saeid Iravani, the Islamic Republic’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations, had sent a letter to the UN Secretary-General and the Security Council protesting what he called “the U.S. abuse of the territory and airspace of regional countries.”

According to these reports, Iravani said in the letter that the United States had used the territory and airspace of five countries in the region - Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia - to carry out military operations against the Islamic Republic. He described this as a violation of those countries’ sovereignty and a breach of international law, and urged the Security Council to address the issue. Officials of the Islamic Republic have repeatedly accused regional countries in the past of allowing U.S. forces to use their bases and infrastructure.

During the recent conflicts with Israel and the U.S., the Islamic Republic also repeatedly carried out missile and drone attacks on public facilities, hotels, airports, refineries, and ships in Persian Gulf countries, claiming they were retaliatory strikes against U.S. bases. In addition, the Islamic Republic’s representative to the UN has previously accused human rights bodies and the United Nations of being politicized in response to warnings over human rights issues, including “mass executions,” “bloody crackdowns on Iranian protesters,” “arbitrary detentions,” and “the killing of citizens during protests.”