Shafaq News- Tehran

Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs considered the joint statement issued by US Secretary of State and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) foreign ministers, “interventionist, irresponsible, and provocative.”

The joint communique in Manama called for Iran to address what “threats to regional security,” including its ballistic missiles, drones, and support for regional proxy groups. It also stressed that any future trade and investment with Tehran would remain conditional and reversible, tied to Iran's compliance with a recently signed memorandum of understanding and the cessation of “destabilizing behavior.”

Read more: US, GCC back Baghdad's bid to disarm armed factions

In a statement on Friday, the ministry rejected “a repetition of a big lie fabricated by Israel and the United States” regarding Iran's peaceful nuclear program, urging GCC member states to pursue cooperation with Tehran on establishing a nuclear-weapon-free zone in West Asia ”rather than echoing Washington's framing of the program as a threat.”

Characterizing US military presence in the region as "a burden on the peoples of the region and a source of insecurity and division," the statement argued that American assurances of commitment to GCC security amount to propaganda. Washington's use of regional bases to conduct military aggression against Iran between February 28 and April 8, 2026, demonstrated, in its view, that the United States disregards the security of neighboring states.

On missiles and drones, the ministry called it "irresponsible and fully condemnable" to portray Iran's defensive capabilities as threatening, particularly given a US-driven arms race that has turned West Asia into "a massive weapons depot."

"The Islamic Republic of Iran will not show any tolerance whatsoever in defending its sovereignty and the capabilities related to it," the statement read.

Countries in the region whose territory was used during the recent war with the United States and Israel, according to the statement, must reconsider their positions.

The ministry rejected the joint statement's characterization of Palestinian and Lebanese resistance movements as Iranian proxies, stating that the only entity operating by proxy in the region is Israel. Palestinian and Lebanese resistance against occupation and what it termed apartheid constitutes, in the ministry's position, fully legitimate struggle under international law, with all states obligated to support the right to self-determination.