South Korea explains Yoon’s controversial remarks on Iran
South Korea has tried to downplay the negative impacts of controversial remarks made about Iran by President Yoon Suk Yeol during his recent visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
In a text message issued to reporters on Tuesday, parts of which were covered in a report by the official Yonhap news agency, the South Korean Foreign Ministry said Yoon’s remarks about Iran were “irrelevant” to Seoul's relations with Tehran.
The Yonhap report said South Korea was seeking to defuse controversy over the remarks in which Yoon had compared the UAE-Iran relations to that of South and North Koreas by saying that the UAE's “enemy and biggest threat is Iran.”
The ministry warned against “unnecessary overinterpretation” of Yoon’s remark, saying it had been made in the context of encouraging South Korean soldiers deployed in the UAE.
It added that Seoul has a strong commitment to boost its friendly relations with Iran.
“Since forging diplomatic ties with Iran in 1962, our country has long maintained friendly and cooperative ties with Iran, and our commitment to continue developing the friendly bilateral relations with Iran remains firm,” the ministry said.
In response to Yeol’s remarks, the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry Nasser Kanaani said late on Monday that the comments had shown that the South Korean official was completely unaware of historical and friendly relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Persian Gulf littoral states, including the UAE.
As Kanaani noted, the Iranian Foreign Ministry is looking into and pursuing the meddling comments by Yoon and is waiting for an explanation from Seoul.