Tehran is furious with South Korean President Yoon Suk-labeling yeol’s Iran a “enemy” of the UAE.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol called Iran the “enemy” of the UAE and compared it to North Korea, sparking a diplomatic crisis.
On Monday, Yoon visited South Korean special forces in Abu Dhabi and called the UAE a “brother nation” bound by growing economic and military cooperation.
Yoon then contrasted UAE’s purported Iran threat to South Korea’s nuclear North Korea threat.
Yoon said Iran is the UAE’s biggest threat and North Korea is ours.
Iran’s foreign ministry condemned Yoon’s “interfering words” and launched an investigation.
Reza Najafi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister for legal issues, called the South Korean ambassador on Wednesday to protest Yoon’s remarks, according to IRNA.
Najafi also cited South Korean banks’ frozen Iranian funds and Seoul’s “unfriendly posture” to Iran. Iran has repeatedly asked Seoul to release $7bn in US-frozen cash.
In a briefing, ministry spokesperson Lim Soo-suk said South Korea’s First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun-dong contacted Iranian ambassador Saeed Badamchi Shabestari to convey Seoul’s position “once again” on Thursday.
Lim added, “As we explained multiple times, [Yoon’s] reported words were aimed to encourage our troops serving their responsibilities in the UAE, and had nothing to do with Iran’s external affairs, particularly South Korea-Iran relations.
“Our government’s will to establish relations with Iran remains unchanged,” he said.
According to Yonhap News Agency, Seoul’s foreign ministry called Yoon’s comments “irrelevant” to Seoul-Tehran relations and warned Iran against “unnecessary overinterpretation”.
Yoon’s political opponents in South Korea called the quarrel “diplomatically devastating” as the UAE manages its relationship with Iran, a key trading partner.
The UAE houses 3,500 American soldiers and has spent billions on South Korean surface-to-air missile systems to defend against aerial strikes. Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels use long-range drones.
Iran’s failing nuclear deal with world powers has pressured South Korea, one of Iran’s top Asian crude buyers. After Washington reimposed sanctions on Tehran in 2018, South Korean banks blocked billions in Iranian funds.
Iran seized a South Korean oil tanker in 2021. Both sides have discussed ways to unfreeze finances and resume oil commerce.
