Seizure of Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs

The Seizure of Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs describes the Iranian takeover of Abu Musa and the Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb islands in 30 November 1971, when British forces withdrew from the islands in the Strait of Hormuz. After the British forces had withdrawn, the Imperial Iranian Navy took territorial control of the islands.[3]

Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs Dispute

Map of the Strait of Hormuz
Date30 November 1971
Location
Abu Musa and Greater and Lesser Tunbs in the Persian Gulf
Result Decisive Iranian victory
Territorial
changes		 Iran takes over Abu Musa and Greater and Lesser Tunbs
Belligerents
Iran  Sharjah
 Ras Al Khaimah
Commanders and leaders
Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Admiral Farajollah Rasai		 Khalid bin Mohammed Al Qasimi
Saqr bin Mohammed Al Qasimi
Strength
2,000 Imperial Iranian Navy troops[1] 6 police officers[1]
Casualties and losses
3 soldiers KIA[2] 4 police officers KIA[2][1]

History

According to Iranologist Pirouz Mojtahedzadeh, the Tunbs were in the dominions of the kings of Hormuz from 1330 until 1507 when they were invaded by Portugal. The Portuguese occupied the island until 1622, when they were expelled by Shah Abbas. The islands were part of various Persian Empires from 1622 to 1921. They were occupied by the British Empire on 7 June 1921, and they were put under administration of the Emirate of Sharjah. In 1971, shortly before the end of the British protectorate and the formation of the United Arab Emirates, Iran assumed partial control of Abu Musa under an agreement of joint administration together with Sharjah. Iran and Sharjah signed a Memorandum of Understanding. They agreed to allow Sharjah to have a local police station and Iran to station troops on the island according to the map attached to the Memorandum of Understanding. Iran and Sharjah will each have full Jurisdiction on the areas designated and each others flag will continue to fly as well as equal distribution of petroleum oil revenues.[3] A day later on 30 November 1971, Iran seized the Islands and took control over them.[3][4][5]

Operation
Sheikh Saqr, the brother of the ruler of Sharjah, welcoming Iranian troops abroad Iran's Artemis navy ship, to Abu Musa, 1971

At dawn on November 29, 1971, helicopters circled the island and dropped leaflets, written in Persian, telling residents who were mostly farmers and fishermen to surrender.[1] In the Greater and Lesser Tunbs, Ras Al Khaimah ruler Sheikh Saqr bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, who did not have a signed agreement with Iran, resisted the Iranian troops that were sent to the Tunbs.[6]

At 5:30 pm on 29 November 1971, a contingent of the Iranian army supported by the naval forces occupied the islands of the Lesser and Greater Tunbs.[2] In the Greater Tunb, the Iranians ordered the policemen stationed to lower the flag. Salem Suhail bin Khamis, one of the six policemen stationed refused to comply and was shot and killed.[1] Policemen in the Greater Tunb clashed with the Iranian troops and on the ensuing skirmish four Ras Al Khaimah policemen and three Iranian soldiers were killed. The Iranian troops then demolished the police station, the school, and number houses, and forced the natives to leave the Island. The body of the deceased were buried in the island and the residents were put on fishing boats and expelled to Ras Al Khaimah.[2][1] The Imperial Iranian Navy seized the islands under small resistance of the tiny Arab police force stationed in there.[7] The population of the Greater Tunb in 1971 was 150.[8][9] According to author Richard N. Schofield, a source state that 120 Arab civilian population of Greater Tunb was then deported, but according to other reports the island had already been uninhabited for some time earlier.[7] The death of the 20 year-old Bin Khamis marks as the date of the first martyr in the United Arab Emirates and November 30 is celebrated as the Commemoration Day in the United Arab Emirates.[1]

On 30 November 1971 an Iranian contingent landed on Abu Musa in order to occupy the part of the island alluded to in the memorandum of understanding with Sharjah. It was led by the Commandant of the navy who was received by the deputy ruler of Sharjah and some aides.[2] The ruler of Sharjah was forced to agree to negotiate since he had no other feasible option. He either had to negotiate in order to save part of the territory or forego the restoration of the remaining part of the island for good.[10] On the same day Iranian Prime Minister officially broke the news of the seizure of the islands of Lesser and Greater tunbs and the partial occupation of Abu Musa and stated that the Iranian flag had been hoisted on the tip of Haifa mountain, the highest point in Abu Musa. He said Iran's sovereignty of the Islands was restored following prolonged talks with the British government and declared that Iran would not abandon its sovereignty over the whole of Abu Musa and accordingly, the presence of local officials in certain parts of the island was in contraindication of Iran's sovereignty over the whole island.[11]

Aftermath
Sheikh Mohammed bin Salim Al Qassimi, previous ruler of Ras Al Khaimah raising the Ras Al Khaimah flag on Greater Tunb in the presence of British navy officers some time in between 1921-1948.

Iran justified the invasion by claiming that the islands were part of the Persian Empire since the 6th century BC.[12] This justification was disputed by the UAE who claimed that Arabs maintained control and sovereignty of the islands since the 7th century BC.[12] However, there is no surviving documentation from pre-colonial times regarding the sovereignty of the islands.[12] The earliest known record regarding sovereignty in 1518 by the Portuguese claimed that the islands were in fact inhabited and ruled by Arabs.[12]

In the following decades, the issue remained a source of friction between the Arab states and Iran. Negotiations between the UAE and Iran in 1992 failed. The UAE have attempted to bring the dispute before the International Court of Justice,[13] but Iran refused. Tehran says the islands always belonged to it as it had never renounced possession of the islands, and that they are part of Iranian territory.[14] The United Arab Emirates argue that the islands were under the control of Qasimi sheikhs throughout the nineteenth century, whose rights were then inherited by the UAE after 1971. Iran counters by stating that the local Qasimi rulers during a crucial part of the nineteenth century were actually based on the Iranian, not the Arab, coast, and had thus become Persian subjects.[15] In 1980, the UAE took its claim to the United Nations,[16] but it was deferred by the UN Security Council at that time to a later date but was not revisited.[3][5] According to author Thomas Mattair, executive director of Middle East Policy Council (MEPC), given that Iran has consistently refused to consider mediation or arbitration from third-party groups such as the ICJ, Mattair considers the invasion a violation of Article 33 of the United Nations Charter.[17]

Memorandum of understanding
  • Ruler of Sharjah asks British Foreign Secretary for Iranian acceptance of the MOU.
  • The Memorandum of Understanding as attached to the letter of 18 November 1971 from the Ruler of Sharjah to the British Foreign Secretary.
  • Official map of Abu musa island attached to the Memorandum of Understanding of November 1971.
  • Letter of 24 November 1971 from British Foreign Secretary to the Iranian Minister of foreign Affairs asking for Iranian acceptance of MOU.
  • Letter of 25 November 1971 from Iranian Foreign Minister to the British Foreign Secretary concerning Iran’s acceptance of the MOU.
  • Letter of 25 November 1971 from the Iranian Foreign Minister to the British Foreign Secretary spelling out Iran’s conditions and warnings relevant to Iran’s acceptance of the MOU.
  • Letter of 26 November 1971 from British Foreign Secretary to the Iranian Foreign Minister informing him that Iran’s conditions and warnings had been conveyed to the Ruler of Sharjah. (It was agreed that an absence of reply from the Ruler of Sharjah to this letter would amount to his acceptance of Iran’s conditions and warnings.)[18]

See also

References
  1. "UAE's first martyr remembered". The National. 6 December 2012.
  2. Taryam, Abdulla Omran (2019). The Establishment of the United Arab Emirates 1950-85. Routledge. p. 163. ISBN 9781138225787.
  3. Mojtahedzadeh, Pirouz (1993). Countries and boundaries in the geopolitical region of the Persian Gulf. The Institute for Political and International Studies. ISBN 964-361-103-5.
  4. Mojtahedzadeh, Pirouz (1999). Security and territoriality in the Persian Gulf. RoutledgeCurzon. ISBN 0-7007-1098-1.
  5. Mojtahedzadeh, Pirouz (2006). Boundary Politics and International Boundaries of Iran. Florida: Universal Publishers Boca Raton. ISBN 1-58112-933-5.
  6. Rubin, Barry M. (2002). Crises in the Contemporary Persian Gulf. Routledge. pp. 44–45. ISBN 9780714652672.
  7. Schofield, Richard. Borders and territoriality in the Gulf and the Arabian peninsula during the twentieth century. In: Schofield (ed.) Territorial foundations of the Gulf states. London: UCL Press, 1994. 1-77. References on p. 38.
  8. Taryam, Abdulla Omran (2019). The Establishment of the United Arab Emirates 1950-85. Routledge. p. 158-159. ISBN 9781138225787.
  9. Al Qassimi, Sheikh Khalid bin Mohammed (23 August 1971). Memorandum to Arab States on Abu Musa. XV. Beirut: The Middle East Research and Publishing Centre. p. 6-3.
  10. Taryam, Abdulla Omran (2019). The Establishment of the United Arab Emirates 1950-85. Routledge. p. 162. ISBN 9781138225787.
  11. Taryam, Abdulla Omran (2019). The Establishment of the United Arab Emirates 1950-85. Routledge. p. 164. ISBN 9781138225787.
  12. Al-Mazrouei, Noura (October 2015). "Disputed Islands between UAE and Iran: Abu Musa, Greater Tunb, and Lesser Tunb in the Strait of Hormuz" (PDF). Gulf Research Centre Cambridge 2.
  13. Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research (HIIK) Archived 29 February 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  14. Safa Haeri,
  15. Schofield: 35-37.
  16. Article about Abu Musa in the Trade & Environment Database of the American University, Massachusetts Archived 22 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  17. Mattair, Thomas (July 1995). The Three Occupied UAE Islands: The Tunbs and Abu Musa. The Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research.
  18. Mojtahedzadeh, Pirouz (July 1995). THE ISLANDS OF TUNB AND ABU MUSA. UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.

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