Tehran denounces GCC over missile comments
The GCC enumerated worries about Iran and its "destabilizing behavior," triggering typically strong rhetoric from Tehran.
Iran hit out at the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) after the latter underscored the need to tackle Tehran's missile program and its regional activities as major challenges to regional security.
"At a moment that the [Gulf Cooperation] Council is serving as an arsenal for American and Western arms, it is in no position to make any comments on [Iran's] missile program," declared Foreign Ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh.
Concluding their latest meeting in Riyadh on Wednesday, GCC foreign ministers demanded their countries' active inclusion in talks over the revival of the Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Echoing the very same concerns from another statement last June, they highlighted the urgency to counter multiple threats posed by the Islamic Republic, from its "destabilizing behavior," "sponsorship for terrorism" and support for militia groups across the Middle East, to its missile program and maritime practices endangering international navigation.
But according to the Iranian spokesperson, with such an "entirely flawed" approach and "irrelevant demands," the GCC "is only further reducing its increasingly diminishing credibility."
