Mohammed Hassan Abu Tarabi, the Friday prayer leader in Tehran and a representative of the Iranian Supreme Leader, has called on Moscow to “urgently reform” its stance in supporting the UAE initiative and efforts to achieve a peaceful resolution to the issue of the three occupied islands: Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb, and Abu Musa.
Moscow has faced mounting criticism from political circles, particularly from the reformist and moderate factions in Iran, questioning the feasibility of the Iranian-Russian rapprochement.
These factions oppose the policy of “looking towards the East,” advocated by the Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, to foster closer ties between Moscow and Beijing.
In an attempt to counter its critics, the Iranian government sought to undermine their arguments by summoning the Russian ambassador to Tehran. Additionally, it indirectly criticized the Russian position without explicitly mentioning Russia by name.
However, the policy of refraining from directly criticizing Moscow only intensified the criticisms. Eventually, officials close to Khamenei’s office entered the fray and directly criticized Moscow.
Criticism against Russia escalated on Friday as websites republished a tweet from the Russian Foreign Ministry, quoting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s welcome message to his counterparts in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
“Given the strategic relations between Tehran and Moscow, as well as the principles outlined in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization regarding respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of member states, the Iranian people and the peoples of the Islamic region expect Moscow to promptly rectify and amend its recent position regarding the three Iranian islands,” said Abu Tarabi, according to IRNA.
It is well known that Friday prayer leaders in Iran, especially in the capital Tehran, express the positions of Khamenei regarding the latest developments in the political arena.
Abu Tarabi became the second official affiliated with Khamenei’s office to comment on Moscow’s stance, following Ali Akbar Velayati, the advisor to the Iranian Supreme Leader on international affairs, who accused Moscow of “naivety.”
