MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Iran is concerned over recent territorial dispute in the South China Sea and urges all the states involved to exercise self-restraint, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said Monday.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran backs a policy of friendship and good neighborliness by South China Sea littoral states and calls on the parties to the disputes to exercise restraint," Qassemi told reporters in Tehran, as quoted by the Tasnim News Agency.
On July 12, a UN-appointed arbitration court in the Hague ruled that there was no basis to Beijing’s claim to extensive territories in the South China Sea.
Earlier in the day, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) released a delayed joint statement that urged nations in the region to exercise self-restraint without making direct reference to their territorial row with China.