Table Of ContentIslands and International Politics in the Persian Gulf
The position of the Persian Gulf as a main highway between East and West has
long given this region special significance both within the Middle East and in
global affairs more generally. This book examines the history of international
relations in the Gulf since the 1820s as Great Powers and regional powers have
vied for supremacy over this geopolitically vital region. It focuses on the
struggle for control over the islands of the Gulf, in particular the three islands of
Abu Musa, Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb - an issue that remains contentious
today. It describes how for 170 years Britain eroded Iranian influence in the
Persian Gulf, both directly, by trying to assert colonial rule over Iranian islands
and port districts, and indirectly, by claiming Iranian islands for their proteges on
the Arab littoral. It shows how, after Britain’s withdrawal, these islands became
pawns amid the animosity and competition that, at one time, pitted Arab radicals
and nationalists against monarchical Iran and, later, the conservative-moderate
Arab camp against Islamic Iran. It goes on to explore the impact of the rise of
American power in the Gulf since 1991, the US policy of containment of Iran,
and how this has provided encouragement to the ambitions of the Persian Gulf
Arab littoral states, especially the UAE, towards the islands of the Gulf.
Kourosh Ahmadi is a diplomat with 28 years of experience in the region and in
international organizations. The research for this book was supported by the
Center for Strategic Research - Tehran.*
The views, opinions, and/or findings in this book are those of the author, and should not be construed as
necessarily reflecting the views of the staff, officers or Board of Overseers of the Center.
Durham Modern Middle East and Islamic World Series
Series Editor: Anoushiravan Ehteshami
University of Durham
1. Economic Development in Saudi Arabia
Rodney Wilson, with Abdullah Al-Salamah, Monica Malik and Ahmed Al-Rajhi
2. Islam Encountering Globalisation
Edited by Ali Mohammadi
3. China’s Relations with Arabia and the Gulf, 1949-1999
Mohamed Bin Huwaidin
4. Good Governance in the Middle East Oil Monarchies
Edited by Tom Pierre Najem and Martin Hetherington
5. The Middle East’s Relations with Asia and Russia
Edited by Hannah Carter and Anoushiravan Ehteshami
6. Israeli Politics and the Middle East Peace Process, 1988-2002
Hassan A. Barari
7. The Communist Movement in the Arab World
Tareq Y. Ismael
8. Oman - The Islamic Democratic Tradition
Hussein Ghubash
9. The Secret Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations in Oslo
Their success and why the process ultimately failed
Sven Behrendt
10. Globalization and Geopolitics in the Middle East
Old games, new rules Anoushiravan Ehteshami
11. Iran-Europe Relations
Challenges and opportunities
Seyyed Hossein Mousavian
12. Islands and International Politics in the Persian Gulf
Abu Musa and the Tunbs in strategic perspective
Kourosh Ahmadi
Islands and International Politics in the
Persian Gulf
Abu Musa and the Tunbs in strategic perspective
Kourosh Ahmadi
First published 2008 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge
270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of
eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
© 2008 Kourosh Ahmadi
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any
electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the
British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN 0-203-92871-7 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 10: 0-415-45933-8 (hbk)
ISBN 10: 0-203-92871-7 (ebk)
ISBN 13: 978-0-415-45933-4 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-0-203-92871-4 (ebk)
Contents
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Maps
Introduction
1 Pax Britannica in the Persian Gulf
2 The Curzon strategy
3 The restoration of Persian Gulf autonomy and the issue of the three islands
4 Transitional period
5 Confrontational phase
Conclusion: from containment to containment
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgements
In carrying out this research, I have profited from the assistance and counsel of
many individuals whose services no words of appreciation can adequately
measure. Especial acknowledgement is due to Dr Hossein Mousavian, the
former Deputy-Director for International Studies, the Center for Strategic
Research, whose enthusiastic interest in the project contributed greatly to its
realization.
I owe a debt of gratitude to Professor Djamshid Momtaz, who patiently read the
manuscript and provided me with his valuable specialist knowledge and advice
at all times.
Also, I am grateful to Anoushirvan Ehteshami, the editor of the Durham Modern
Middle East and Islamic World Series, and to the editors with whom I have
worked during the preparation of the book - Peter Sowden, Tom Bates, Suzanne
Peake, Andrew R. Davidson and Emma Davis. Their patience, professional skill
and ability to provide expert viewpoints have been a vital asset in publishing this
book.
I should not let this opportunity go without expressing my gratitude to my wife,
Dr Tahereh Miremadi, for advice and encouragement. Nonetheless, the usual
caveat applies that any remaining errors are solely my own responsibility.
Kourosh Ahmadi
Foreword
This study is an account of Irano-British encounters in the Persian Gulf from the
time in the 1820s when Britain succeeded in sidelining its European rivals and
establishing its ascendancy in the area. It shows how Britain’s efforts aimed at
enhancing its presence and entrenching its position in the Persian Gulf brought it
into conflict with Iran, the major regional power.
It is a case study that focuses mainly on the Persian Gulf’s islands and the
importance that Britain, as a global maritime power, attached to them in its quest
to control the area as a defensive outpost with which to secure the approaches to
the crown jewel of its empire, the Indian subcontinent. Treaty arrangements
regulated Britain’s relationships with and dominance of the Arab sheikhs on the
lower coast during the informal protectorate regime of the late nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries. But, as this book will explain, British access to and
control of the Iranian islands, especially those lining the north shores of the
Persian Gulf or dominating the sealanes through the Strait of Hormuz, were a
sine qua non for strengthening this protectorate regime, providing for the British
flotilla and, at the same time, keeping European rivals out of those waters.
This study depicts the history of unrelenting struggle that accompanied the
British presence for more than 150 years, with the control of these Iranian
islands at stake. In the course of this long-lasting struggle between the pre-
eminent global power and the major regional power, numerous individual
disputes broke out, and almost every Iranian island in the Persian Gulf was the
subject of dispute during one period or another. Although in the cases of most
islands - including Kishm, Henjam, Hormuz, Larak, Kharg and Sirri - the
British, after exhausting all avenues, gave up and grudgingly acknowledged
Iranian sovereignty, they did not abandon efforts to establish or maintain their de
facto control over those islands in one way or another.
This book explains how Britain became especially inflexible with regard to the
islands of Abu Musa, Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb, sovereignty over which it
claimed for its Arab proteges, after it lost its bid to control the Iranian islands
lining the north shores of the Strait of Hormuz. The expediency and self-
interested strategic calculation with which the British approached the issue of the
islands, and their efforts to work out an agreement among the regional players on
the eve of their withdrawal from the Persian Gulf, are other important themes
that the author covers thoroughly.
The issue of sovereignty over these three islands is important also as it is the
only unresolved issue to have survived the British withdrawal. Chapter 3, in part,
as well as Chapters 4 and 5, focus on the stages of the issue in the post-British
periods. The author sheds light on developments in the issue under different
circumstances and discusses regional and global interests that have affected it
and tried to keep it alive. The description of the roles of the Arab radicals, who
picked up the banner of claiming the islands for the Arab sheikhdoms against
imperial Iran, on the one hand, and the Arab conservative-moderate camp who
sided against Islamic Iran, on the other, is of great interest. The discussion of the
impact of the enhanced US military presence in the Persian Gulf in the 1990s on
the issue of the islands is also of great interest. These later developments are
especially important, as the autonomy of the Persian Gulf from global powers,
achieved after the British withdrawal in 1971, was again put in jeopardy.
Whereas almost all studies carried out so far on the islands issue have reviewed
it from a legal point of view, what we are presented with here is a comprehensive
study of a different nature. Although Kourosh Ahmadi assesses briefly the main
legal arguments that the concerned parties have invoked, he does not attempt to
offer a detailed legal review. Instead, he tries to place the issue in its strategic
and political contexts. It is an interesting new look, in the sense that the struggle
over the sovereignty of these islands is shown to be a manifestation of
conflicting strategic and political interests in the region, as opposed to a simple
territorial dispute pitting two countries against each other over a piece of land.
As the Persian Gulf remains today the strategic vortex of international politics, it
is important that its problems be well understood. The need to revisit and discuss
the issues that are of importance to the riparian states, and thus to the entire
world, and indeed to examine the issues that in one way or another affect the
area, can never be exhausted. And as today’s problems can be understood only in
the light of past developments, this study is a relevant and interesting
contribution to the inexhaustible debates on the issues under discussion.
The material used in this study is drawn primarily from declassified documents
Description:The position of the Persian Gulf as the main highway between East and West has long given this region special significance both within the Middle East and in global affairs more generally. This book examines the history of international relations in the Gulf since the 1820s as great powers such as B
