¶ … longstanding territorial disputes between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Iran, regarding three islands in the Persian Gulf. The first dispute is with respect to the island of Abu Musa, which is claimed by Sharjah. The other is with respect to Greater Tunbs and Lesser Tunbs, both of which are claimed by Ras al-Khaimah. All three are presently viewed by the international community as territory of Iran. The issue dates back to the formation of the UAE. The former colonial power, the United Kingdom, transferred the islands to Iran at this time, in 1971, ostensibly in exchange for Iran dropping its claim to Bahrain. This paper looks at the dispute between the UAE and Iran over these islands, both in its historical context and in terms of its modern manifestations.
Historical Context
The dispute over the status of Abu Musa pre-dates the formation of the UAE. The island was under control of the British for most of the 20th century. Abu Musa sits in the middle of the Persian Gulf, not adjacent to either Iran or to Sharjah. There was never a significant population on the island prior to recently. The island became strategic, however, for two reasons. One is that there is likely abundant oil reserves in its vicinity and the other is that the major shipping lane for oil tankers out of the Persian Gulf is through a channel in between Abu Musa and the Tunbs. For these reasons, the dispute over the status of these islands has remained unresolved.
In 1968, the UK announced that it was going to pull out of the Persian Gulf, essentially leaving the area in the hands of the various emirs. At that point, Sharjah had de facto control over Abu Musa. On this announcement, Iran made claims on different Gulf territories, most particularly on Bahrain, which has a Shia majority living under Sunni rule. In 1969, Iran dropped its claim to Bahrain. In 1971, with the British leaving, Sharjah and Iran reached an agreement that would allow Iran to have military forces on Abu Musa, and for the two countries to split revenue from the oil fields. Iran stationed military forces on Abu Musa per this agreement, but then also stationed forces on the Tunbs, causing uproar among all Arab nations (American.edu, no date). Those islands, while unpopulated, were claimed as territory of Ras al-Khaimah. In 1971, Sharjah joined the United Arab Emirates to form that independent nation. Ras al-Khaimah joined in 1972, the last of the seven emirates to join.
A complicated factor is that the UK was never officially a colonizer. It was a "protecting power," not colonial owner of the lands in question (Kaikobad, no date). As such, the UK never had title to the islands; it negotiated with Iran and Sharjah but it never had the power to give the islands to Iran. Sharjah negotiated the deal, but it appears that there was no discernible benefit to Sharjah, which lends credence to one of the claims that they have today, which is that they signed the deal under a form of duress. The Tunbs were part of the deal that the UK made with Iran; Iran simply seized them.
Iran-Arab Relations
One of the contextual issues in this conflict is Arab-Iranian relations. The Arab nations practice Sunni Islam, while Iran practices Shia Islam. This ancient schism in Islam has created long-lasting tensions between Iran and the Arab states. Iran's short-lived claim to Bahrain relates to that country having a Shia majority population, but a Sunni ruler. As the largest Shia power, Iran tends to support Shiites anywhere else that they live. The schism in Islam always lingers in the background in Iran-Arab relations. Earlier this year, a rift between Saudi Arabia and Iran spilled over into other parts of the Muslim world, largely on sectarian lines after Saudi Arabia executed a Shia leader (Shoichet & Castillo, 2016).
Oil
Probably the most important contextual issue is oil. Abu Musa has substantial oil reserves, and the channel between the islands is the deepest part of the Persian Gulf. As such, it...
Control over this lane represents an opportunity to gain control over much of the Gulf's oil supply. There are ways around this -- pipelines through Oman, for example, but ultimately most of the Gulf's oil still travels through the Strait of Hormuz, and this channel is one of the most important pathways for ships to
travel the route. Iran presently controls this. The oil revenues and strategic importance of the islands has been a contributing factor in the intractability of the conflict. Iran in particular needs the oil revenue to help its
economy, though Ras al-Khaimah also has a need for revenue generation. For its part, Sharjah is one of the wealthier emirates, oil or no.
Current Situation
With respect to the islands, the status of their
sovereignty remains in dispute. The international community recognizes them as Iranian, because of the deal that the British made with Iran for Abu Musa, seizure of the Tunbs notwithstanding. The UAE did not exist at the time of the deal, and therefore did not have a say in the matter, though both Sharjah and Ras al-Khaimah maintain their claims. That their emirs were effectively shut out of the process by the British is one of the reasons the dispute is ongoing. The UAE has maintained that it holds sovereignty over the islands, based on historical claims.
Iran maintains that possession of the islands. It has military forces on all three, and there is a small civilization population on Abu Musa. Iran has argued that under international law, neither Sharjah nor Ras al-Khaimah had
authority to occupy the islands, as they were not legal states at the time; Iran was. As such, any claims that they subsequently had when the UAE was formed are invalid.
The UAE also argues on the basis of historical claim to the islands. The UAE makes the claim that Sharjah entered into the agreement under duress -- Sharjah was afraid that Iran would seize the islands by military force. With Britain's withdrawal, Sharjah was suddenly left with little means by which it could counter Iran. It agreed therefore under threat of
attack is the line of reasoning. Sharjah specifically cites that Iran took the Tunbs by force when Ras al-Khaimah did not cede them as evidence of Iran's intention to seize all of these islands by military force (Zwaagstra, 2013).
The current deterioration of diplomatic relations between the Iran and the Arab world, the UAE included, decreases the likelihood that these parties will enter into negotiations. At various points, there has been talk that such negotiations could be initiated, but Iran has not serious
motivation to do so. With UAE withdrawing a lot of its diplomatic representation, the
environment for entering into
dialogue is not a healthy one at present, and the dispute looks to remain unresolved for the foreseeable future.
Iran has militarized the islands as a show of force in the Persian Gulf. In particular, it has "deployed Chinese HY-2 Silkworm anti-ship missiles" on the island, as well as on Qeshm and along the Iranian coast." All three islands have Iranian military presence, though there have not been any reports of incidents involving these forces.
The Way Forward
The current diplomatic issues between the UAE and Iran may preclude talks at this point. The way forward, however, does involve discussion between the relevant stakeholders. Iran's interest is almost assuredly related to the oil and the shipping channel. This is why Iran was interested in the islands in the first
place in 1968. While both countries are arguing historical claims, such claims are entirely a pretext. These islands were uninhabited and nobody had much presence on them at all. They were not subject to Iranian claim prior to Britain's announcement that it was going to pull out of the Gulf. For Iran, the
security is likely more…
