Iran Press/ Iran news: Iran's Foreign Ministry on Wednesday summoned Seoul's Ambassador to Tehran to protest against the South Korean President’s meddlesome comments against Iran and threaten to reconsider bilateral ties.
The UAE is home to about 3,500 American soldiers and has spent billions of dollars buying South Korean surface-to-air missile systems as a means to protect itself against aerial attacks.
While visiting South Korean special forces stationed in Abu Dhabi on Monday, Yoon described the UAE as a “brother nation” of South Korea tied by growing economic and military cooperation.
“As we explained several times, [Yoon’s] reported comments were meant to encourage our troops serving their duties in the UAE, and had nothing to do with Iran’s foreign relations, including South Korea-Iran relations,” Lim claimed.
Yoon then compared the threat UAE supposedly faces from Iran to the threat South Korea faces from nuclear-armed North Korea.
Iran's Foreign Ministry summoned Seoul's Ambassador
Yun Kang-Hyeon was summoned on Wednesday to receive Tehran’s strong protest following South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s interventionist remarks regarding Iran's relations with the United Arab Emirates.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s description of Iran as an ‘enemy’ of the United Arab Emirates has angered Tehran.
On Thursday South Korea also summoned Iran ambassadors after a diplomatic dispute triggered by South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol describing Tehran as the “enemy” of the United Arab Emirates and comparable to the threat posed by North Korea.
Yoon’s remarks triggered a stiff response from Iran’s foreign ministry, which said it was investigating Yoon’s “interfering statements”.
Iran’s deputy foreign minister on legal affairs, Reza Najafi, summoned the South Korean ambassador on Wednesday to protest against Yoon’s remarks.
Iran also accused Seoul of pursuing an “unfriendly approach” towards Iran and noted the issue of Iranian funds frozen in South Korean banks. Iran has repeatedly demanded that Seoul release some $7bn of its funds frozen under US sanctions.
S. Korea Foreign Ministry called its President's remark "irrelevant"
“As we explained several times, [Yoon’s] reported comments were meant to encourage our troops serving their duties in the UAE, and had nothing to do with Iran’s foreign relations, including South Korea-Iran relations,” South Korea’s First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun-dong said.
“Our government’s will to develop relations with Iran remains unchanged,” he said.
According to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, the foreign ministry in Seoul had stressed that Yoon’s comments were “irrelevant” to Seoul-Tehran relations, and also urged Iran against “unnecessary overinterpretation”.
South Korea was once one of Iran’s biggest crude buyers in Asia and has now found itself squeezed by the tensions over Iran’s collapsed nuclear deal with world powers.
Billions of dollars in Iranian funds remain frozen in South Korean banks after Washington reimposed sanctions on Tehran in 2018.
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