Caricom split in tone after Iran strike

Cari­com gov­ern­ments have urged re­straint and diplo­ma­cy fol­low­ing the es­ca­la­tion of hos­til­i­ties in the Mid­dle East, as Trinidad and To­ba­go sig­nalled sup­port for the Unit­ed States’ mil­i­tary ac­tion against Iran.

While Port of Spain aligned it­self with Wash­ing­ton, sev­er­al re­gion­al gov­ern­ments adopt­ed a more cau­tious pos­ture cen­tred on de-es­ca­la­tion and ne­go­ti­a­tions. Guyana, how­ev­er, is­sued a sharp­er con­dem­na­tion of Iran’s ac­tions.

Guyana

Guyana’s Gov­ern­ment de­scribed what it called the “un­pro­voked at­tack by Iran” on the King­dom of Bahrain, the Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates, Qatar and Kuwait as un­jus­ti­fied and in breach of in­ter­na­tion­al law.

In a Feb­ru­ary 28 state­ment is­sued by the Min­istry of For­eign Af­fairs and In­ter­na­tion­al Co­op­er­a­tion, George­town con­demned the at­tacks on those sov­er­eign states and called up­on all par­ties to de-es­ca­late in the in­ter­est of peace and sta­bil­i­ty in the re­gion.

Guyana ex­pressed full sol­i­dar­i­ty with the gov­ern­ments and peo­ples of Bahrain, the Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates, Qatar and Kuwait and con­demned all ac­tions by Iran in at­tack­ing those coun­tries.

An­tigua and Bar­bu­da

Prime Min­is­ter Gas­ton Browne ex­pressed deep con­cern over what he de­scribed as a “rapid and dan­ger­ous es­ca­la­tion of hos­til­i­ties” in the Mid­dle East, in­clud­ing re­port­ed mis­sile at­tacks by Iran di­rect­ed at the ter­ri­to­ries of the Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates and oth­er Gulf states.

With re­gard to the at­tacks on the Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates, Qatar and oth­er Gulf states, An­tigua and Bar­bu­da con­demned at­tacks against the ter­ri­to­r­i­al in­tegri­ty of states not di­rect­ly par­ty to a con­flict, de­scrib­ing such ac­tions as a se­ri­ous breach of in­ter­na­tion­al law which height­ens the risk of widen­ing in­sta­bil­i­ty.

Browne said the Iran­ian lead­er­ship must un­der­stand it has no op­tion but to en­gage in good-faith ne­go­ti­a­tions to ad­dress is­sues of re­gion­al se­cu­ri­ty. He reaf­firmed sup­port for the sov­er­eign­ty and ter­ri­to­r­i­al in­tegri­ty of all na­tions and urged max­i­mum re­straint by all ac­tors.

An­tigua and Bar­bu­da joined calls by the in­ter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty, in­clud­ing the Unit­ed Na­tions Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al, for re­newed diplo­mat­ic en­gage­ment to pre­vent fur­ther de­te­ri­o­ra­tion and up­hold the rule of law.

Grena­da

In a state­ment dat­ed March 1, the Gov­ern­ment of Grena­da ex­pressed deep con­cern over the re­cent es­ca­la­tion of hos­til­i­ties and re­ports of re­tal­ia­to­ry ac­tions af­fect­ing parts of the Gulf re­gion, warn­ing of widened in­sta­bil­i­ty and dan­gers to civil­ian lives and in­fra­struc­ture.

St George’s urged all par­ties to re­frain from fur­ther ac­tions which could height­en re­gion­al in­sta­bil­i­ty or ex­ac­er­bate hu­man­i­tar­i­an suf­fer­ing. It called for max­i­mum re­straint and avoid­ance of fur­ther mil­i­tary ac­tion which could broad­en the con­flict.

Grena­da reaf­firmed the im­por­tance of re­spect­ing sov­er­eign­ty and ter­ri­to­r­i­al in­tegri­ty in keep­ing with the prin­ci­ples of the Unit­ed Na­tions Char­ter. It said di­a­logue, diplo­ma­cy and de-es­ca­la­tion re­main the on­ly vi­able path­ways to­ward restor­ing sta­bil­i­ty and pre­vent­ing fur­ther hu­man­i­tar­i­an im­pact.

Ja­maica

The Min­istry of For­eign Af­fairs and For­eign Trade in Ja­maica said it was mon­i­tor­ing mil­i­tary hos­til­i­ties in the Mid­dle East and ad­vised Ja­maicans to avoid all trav­el to the re­gion at this time.

The state­ment stopped short of en­dors­ing any side, fo­cus­ing in­stead on con­sular guid­ance and the safe­ty of na­tion­als.

Bar­ba­dos

The Gov­ern­ment of Bar­ba­dos al­so ex­pressed deep con­cern over the es­ca­la­tion, warn­ing that mil­i­tary ac­tion af­fect­ing mul­ti­ple coun­tries in the Mid­dle East has the po­ten­tial to un­der­mine in­ter­na­tion­al peace and se­cu­ri­ty.

In its state­ment, Bridgetown joined Unit­ed Na­tions Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al An­tónio Guter­res in con­demn­ing the mil­i­tary es­ca­la­tion and called on all mem­ber states to re­spect their com­mit­ments un­der in­ter­na­tion­al law. Bar­ba­dos urged re­straint and a re­turn to di­a­logue and diplo­mat­ic so­lu­tions along­side Gulf Co­op­er­a­tion Coun­cil mem­ber states and oth­er af­fect­ed coun­tries.

The gov­ern­ment ex­pressed sym­pa­thy for those af­fect­ed by the vi­o­lence and ex­tend­ed con­do­lences to fam­i­lies who lost loved ones.