The Abu Musa and Tunb Islands Dispute Explained

situated to the west of the world's most important shipping choke point the strait of hormuz are the islands of greater and lesser tumb and abu musa all of which are disputed by iran and the united arab emirates being located so close to the strait of hormuz and due to the depth of the sea in the persian gulf the three islands generate strategic leverage for their owner with large vessels transiting the gulf having to travel between the tums and abu musa the dispute has its roots in the pre-colonial history of the region though there is reportedly no surviving historical documentation from this time making it hard to discern who the islands historically belong to in short those who support iran's claim make the historical case that various empires such as the seleucid parthian and sassanid held political and commercial sway over the persian gulf in pre-islamic times and also that the islands were part of various persian empires from 1622 until 1921 when they were occupied by the british empire and were put under the administration of the emirate of sharjah on the other hand advocates for the uae's claim make the historical case that the islands were under strong arab influence following the rise of islam in the region and were held by various arab entities that dominated the area such as the kingdoms of homuz regardless of the historical complexities of the dispute the modern day situation dates back to 1971 and the withdrawal of british troops from the truce or states many of which would come to comprise the modern day uae in 1968 and in line with its withdrawal east of suez britain would announce its departure from the gulf on the expiry of the protectorate treaties with the trucel states on the 1st of december 1971 leaving the newly formed united arab emirates as an independent state sensing opportunity in the uncertain period of transition due to the british withdrawal iran would quickly look to take advantage on the 29th of november 1971 just two days before the establishment of the uae iran and the shakedom of sharjah would sign memorandum of understanding regarding the island of abu musa treaty that is widely thought sharjah was forced to sign due to its weaker position and due to the potential complete loss of the island to iran this memorandum of understanding or mou would address many aspects of the island's administration see half of the oil revenue generated in the surrounding area split between the two parties and most importantly also see the deployment of iranian troops on the island into areas where iran would have jurisdiction mainly on the north of the island on the same day the mou was signed iranian forces would also land on the islands of greater and lesser thumb two islands not subject to the mou between iran and the emirate of sharjah and in fact ruled by the neighbouring emirate of rasel kamer the takeover of the tumb islands by iran was resisted by local policemen resulting in casualties on both sides and the deportation of both island's residents to rus halcama one day later iranian troops would land on abu musa occupying the north of the island in line with the memorandum of understanding just two days later on the 2nd of december 1971 six of the emirates including sharjah would federate into the united arab emirates with ras al khamer joining later in january 1972 meaning that the uae would inherit the dispute between sharjah and rasal khamer and iran over the islands so far the uae has not attempted to retake the islands by force but has made numerous diplomatic ploys to secure them later in december 1971 iraq libya algeria and yemen would request meeting of the united nations security council to discuss the situation meeting at which the council would decide to defer the matter to later date and after which the matter has not been taken up by the council again the uae has offered to negotiate with iran setting no preconditions for such negotiations arguing that the islands are an integral part of the country view which the gulf cooperation council has thrown its weight behind first round of negotiations were held in 1992 but rendered no solution that same year iran would briefly occupy the whole island of abu musa but would later withdraw to the northern areas established in 1971 since 1992 iran has largely been described as having de facto full control of the island and has increased its military strategic presence there in 1995 another round of negotiations over the issue failed and in 2006 members of the gcc would urge iran to resolve the dispute through the international court of justice something iran has dismissed despite calls from multiple other states in 2009 the uae would approach iran with proposal to create technical committee between the two states in order to foster resolution but iran would not respond to the offer leaving the dispute open until today three years later visit by then president of iran mahmoud ahmadinejad would receive furious response from the uae prompting the state to recall its ambassador to iran for consultations tensions between the uae and iran still simmer over the islands however according to experts there is currently little chance of the uae ever reasserting sovereignty over them by force due to its weaker military position however the uae has become more assertive in its foreign policy in recent years being part of the coalition to counter iranian-backed houthi rebels in yemen and pursuing and building military and economic infrastructure in countries such as eritrea djibouti and parts of somalia where the control of the central government is absent or dubious the country has also not shied away from the use of non-state irregular forces and has unofficially and allegedly seize territory and strategic locations namely the yemeni islands of socotra and perim again though unlikely the uae's recent increase in kinetic and geopolitical power increases the likelihood that it could attempt to retake the islands however it is important to emphasize the chances of this are small looking forward the future of the dispute remains uncertain and most likely the islands will remain under iranian control barring an unprecedented shift in the geopolitical dynamic of the wider region or major diplomatic breakthrough between the two states hey guys massive thank you for watching please do subscribe to the channel if you liked this video as it would help me greatly to produce more content like this if you are wondering how researched these videos and would like to become member of the exclusive args intelligence hub discord server then also consider joining my patreon using the link below joining the args patreon will give you access to all of my sources and will also allow you to view all of my content ad free and finally if you have any burning geopolitical questions make sure to tune in on sundays for the live this week in geopolitics podcast hosted on this channel at 7 15 british summer 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