The Persian Gulf:
Iran, UAE and the “Three Islands”
Yesterday, the post
introduced Iran in the context of the Persian Gulf and TERRITORIAL DISPUTES.
Today, the blog series introduce the difference in relation to “three islands.”
The islands – with Abu Musa
and Lesser Tunb located 38 and 22 nautical miles from the Iranian coast
respectively and, by way of comparison, both are nearly 32 nautical miles from Ras
Al-Khaimah – have been forcibly occupied by Iran since 1971.
Publicly, neither
party to the dispute shows the slightest willingness to compromise on the
sovereignty issue. The islands themselves, apart from some oil deposits (both on
land and in their territorial waters) and deposits of red oxide, have little value
in terms of resources. All three of them are small, and Lesser Tunb is tiny,
uninhabited and without potable water. Even Abu Musa, the most well-endowed of
the three, has an area of no more than four square miles, a population of
around 2,000 people in 2012, three small oil wells and diminishing deposits of
red oxide.
The dispute seems to be in part the manifestation of much
deeper regional rivalries: the islands are psychologically important to both Arabs
and Iranians vying for regional influence and respect. They are powerful
symbols of nationalism, status, prestige and regional authority.
Beyond the historic
contestation and symbolism of the islands, their significance is strategic, as
they lie close to the Strait of Hormuz through which passes 35 per cent of the world’s
seaborne oil and thousands of tons of commercial shipping on a daily basis.
Bases
for the Claims
Iran bases its claim to the islands on a
chain of ownership through various ancient Persian empires dating back to the
sixth century BCE. The political and commercial domination of Iran over the
Persian Gulf in the Seleucial (312- 150 BC), Parthian (238 BC-224 AD), and
Sassanid (224-641 AD) period points to the conclusion that in pre-Islamic times
the [Tunbs] and Abu Musa most likely belonged to Iran. Arguably, despite its claim of dominating the Gulf continuously
for over two thousand years, Iran has not yet come forward with any records of
its own that display or document an earlier connection with the islands.
Scholars who support the UAE’s claim to the
islands disagree with the idea that Persian empires continuously ruled the
Persian Gulf, especially after the rise of Islam. the Gulf became a purely Arab "lake" with the Islamic conquests in the seventh century
AD. Even in the periods following the decline of the early Islamic Caliphate,
local powers, especially in Oman, maintained control and sovereignty over the
region as a whole.
The historical records show
that the Arab Qawasim tribes of Ras Al-Khaimah, Sharjah and Lingeh made use of
the islands from the eighteenth century onwards. The British, as the dominant
power in the region, supported the Qawasim claims to the islands largely
because they were anxious to contain and limit the infuence of Persia in the
Gulf. British support of the Qawasim tribes was later translated into their support
of the emirate of Sharjah’s claims to Abu Musa, and the Ras Al-Khaimah
emirate’s claims to the Tunbs. When these emirates were united into the UAE,
the new state inherited these claims, all of which are contested by Iran.
Unfortunately, there is a problem with both
the Iranian and Arab versions of history: there is no surviving documentation
from pre-colonial times about sovereignty over these three particular islands.
The Three Islands
Iran. A Country Study
Disputes Islands Between UAE and Iran
Jorge Emilio Núñez
Twitter: @London1701
15th November 2018
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