TEHRAN – The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has released $700 million of Tehran’s frozen assets, an Iranian lawmaker announced on Sunday.

“The Emirates has been getting away from Saudi Arabia and the U.S. … It has been trying to revisit its relations with Iran and has released $700 million of Iran’s frozen assets,” Akbar Torki said, according to IRNA.

The UAE’s currency relations with Iran have improved recently and Iranian currency exchange offices in Dubai have resumed activity, the MP added.

Torki said the Emiratis have realized that at this juncture, the Westerners and Saudis cannot provide them with security.

“The Emirates introduces itself as the Switzerland of the Middle East, but trade, banking, energy, and aviation of this country depends on security,” he argued. “It knows that it cannot do anything with a lack of security.”

The remarks came a week after President Hassan Rouhani said Iran’s relations with the United Arab Emirates has been improving.

During a press conference on October 14, Rouhani said there have been “some contacts between Iran and the United Arab Emirates in recent months and some Iranian officials have gone to the Emirates and some officials have also traveled to Iran and the Tehran-Emirates relations has been better in recent months than ever before.”

Meanwhile, during his speech at the UN General Assembly in late September, President Hassan Rouhani extended the hand of friendship to regional countries by inviting all of them to form the Hormuz Peace Endeavor, also called the “Coalition for Hope”.

“Based upon the historical responsibility of my country in maintaining security, peace, stability and progress in the Persian Gulf region and Strait of Hormuz, I would like to invite all the countries directly affected by the developments in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz to the Coalition for Hope,” the president said.

MH/PA