Gulf nations condemned Iran-linked strikes on their energy facilities in a joint statement, as Iran and the paramilitaries it supports continue to attack other nations in the region.
These countries, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar, singled out armed factions in Iraq that are loyal to Iran’s government, saying they had violated international law.
“The United Arab Emirates, the State of Kuwait, the Kingdom of Bahrain, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the State of Qatar, and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan renew their condemnation in the strongest terms of the blatant Iranian attacks, which constitute a flagrant violation of their sovereignty, territorial integrity, international law, international humanitarian law, and the Charter of the United Nations, whether carried out directly or through their proxies and armed factions they support in the region,” the countries wrote.
“We stress, in particular, the attacks carried out by armed factions loyal to Iran from the Republic of Iraq against a number of countries in the region, as well as their facilities and infrastructure.”
In their statement, these countries called on the Iraqi government to work to halt the attacks immediately, and affirmed their right to self-defence under the United Nations charter.
Pro-Iran armed factions in Iraq have claimed responsibility for attacks on United interests across the region. The U.S. has launched airstrikes on Iraq to target these Iran-backed groups, having attacked the Baghdad headquarters of the Popular Mobilisation Forces paramilitary this week.
Meanwhile, Iranian strikes have significantly damaged energy infrastructure in the Gulf. Qatar declared force majeure on all liquefied natural gas exports after Iran struck its Ras Laffan industrial hub this month.
Around 17% of Qatar’s LNG export capacity will be unavailable for three to five years, according to state-owned oil firm QatarEnergy.
