Territorial claims in the Persian Gulf
The Middle East states of Bahrain , Iran , Iraq , Qatar , Kuwait , Oman , Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been raising controversial claims to territories and waters in the Persian Gulf since the 1930s .
background
Before oil was found in the Persian Gulf , the Gulf States made little effort to secure their territories. Members of the Arab tribes stood by their tribe or sheik and migrated according to the needs of their flocks. Official boundaries meant little and the concept of belonging to a particular political entity did not exist. There were only organized authorities in the ports and in the oases .
The delimitation of the areas began with the signing of the first petroleum concessions in the 1930s. National borders were drawn under the influence of the British , but many of these borders were never properly demarcated, leaving opportunities for claims to valuable oil reserves. Until 1971, the British armed forces ensured order and peace in the Gulf region and settled local disputes. After the troops and officials withdrew, the old and unresolved disputes came to light again. The idea of states with drawn borders was brought into the Gulf region by the European powers and the security of the borders became more and more important due to the oil deposits.
Iranian claims against Bahrain
Iran often claimed areas of Bahrain based on the historical expansion of Persia and its defeat by the Portuguese and their subsequent possession of the Bahrain archipelago. The Arab tribe of the Chalifa, who have been the ruling dynasty of Bahrain since the 18th century, ousted the Persians from Bahrain in 1780.
The last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi , renounced claims against Bahrain after a referendum in Bahrain after the British withdrew, in which the Bahraines spoke out in favor of independence. Nonetheless, the religious leaders of the Iranian Revolution raised the demand for areas of Bahrain again on the grounds that the majority of Bahrainis were Shiite Muslims . However, secular Iranian leaders waived such claims in hopes of improving relations with Bahrain.
Iranian claims against the United Arab Emirates
After the British left the Gulf region in 1971, Iranian troops occupied the Abu Musa Island and the Tunb Islands , which lie at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz between Iran and the United Arab Emirates. The Iranians renewed their historical claim to the islands, even though the Iranians had to withdraw from the British in the late 19th century.
Iran continued to occupy the islands in 1993, straining relations with the United Arab Emirates, which claimed the British had surrendered the islands to the Emirates of Sharjah and Ras al-Khaimah, and thus to the United Arab Emirates. Sharjah and Iran were able to come to an agreement on the conflict over the island of Abu Musa by the end of 1992, but there was no agreement between Iran and Ra's al-Khaimah over the Tunb Islands.
Bahrain and Qatar
Another conflict in the Gulf region was the Bahraini claim to Zubara on the northwest coast of Qatar and Hawar and the adjacent islands forty kilometers south of Zubara. The Chalifa had expelled the Persians in Zubara from Bahrain in the 18th century. The ruling family of Qatar, Thani, fought vigorously against the Khalifa for their claim to the old settlement area in Qatar as well as the Hawar Islands occupied by Bahrain and the adjacent islands, a short distance from mainland Qatar but more than 20 kilometers from Bahrain away to claim.
The smoldering dispute escalated in the spring of 1986 when helicopters from Qatar “kidnapped” workers from the construction site of a Bahraini coast guard on Fascht Ad-Dibal, a reef off Qatar. Through Saudi mediation, the parties concluded a fragile armistice, with the Bahrainis having agreed to get their facilities back. However, the dispute flared up again in 1991 after Qatar consulted the International Court of Justice in The Hague , Netherlands . Both countries complained that their respective naval ships were being harassed by the other ships in the disputed waters. The International Court of Justice resolved the dispute in 2001 with a ruling that Bahrain received the Hawar Islands and Qit'at Jarada and made claims on the Janan Island and Zubara, while Qatar received substantial coastal areas and their resources. The agreement has promoted the goal of finally settling the border with Saudi Arabia and continuing the Saudi-led mediation efforts.
Iraq and Kuwait
Saddam Hussein attacked Kuwait in 1990 with the pretext of re-enforcing a long-standing Iraqi claim to all of Kuwait, which was based on the borders drawn by the Ottoman Empire . The Ottoman Empire had a slight rule over Kuwait in the late 19th century, which however expired with the British protection over Kuwait in 1899. In 1932 Iraq informally regulated its border with Kuwait, which had previously been demarcated by the British.
After the British withdrew in 1961 and Kuwait gained independence, Iraq re-established its claim to the emirate on the basis of the Ottoman borders. The British troops rushed back to Kuwait. Under Saudi leadership, 3,000 soldiers from the Arab League supported Kuwait against Iraq and replaced the British.
The border issue came up again when the Ba'ath Party came to power in 1963 after a revolution in Iraq. The new government officially recognized the independence and borders of Kuwait. However, in 1973 Iraq re-established its claims to the islands of Bubiyan and al-Warba . During the First Gulf War from 1980 to 1988, Iraq demanded long-term leasing of the islands because of their strategic location for access to the Gulf States. With the rejection of the Iraqi demand, the relationship between the two countries was strained, as the status of the islands remained open after unsuccessful negotiations.
In August 1991, Kuwait announced that Iraqis had attacked and repulsed Bubiyan with gunboats and that many of the invaders had been captured. United Nations investigators found that the Iraqis attacked with fishing boats and crossed the military borders established after the Second Gulf War . Kuwait was suspected of exaggerating the incident to underscore the need for international support against the ongoing Iraqi hostilities.
Buraimi
The Buraimi oasis represents a particularly long and bitter source of conflict , which has been claimed by the tribes from Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Oman since the 19th century . Although the tribes from Oman and Abu Dhabi had their residences in the different villages of the oasis and were Wahhabis , who have their origins in what is now Saudi Arabia, the oasis was regularly occupied and a high toll was taken from the residents of the area. Oil production began in 1952 on behalf of Saudi Arabia, which claimed control over the oasis for itself.
In an effort to resolve the conflict in 1955, the British sent Omani envoys to the Saudi Arabian contingent. After an agreement was reached in the new negotiations, according to which Saudi Arabia recognized the demands of Abu Dhabi and Oman on the oasis, in return Abu Dhabi granted Saudi Arabia a stretch of land on the Gulf and a share in a controversial oil field. Despite this agreement, other disputes over borders and water rights remained.
Musandam
In the past, the spatial separation of the southern part of Oman from its territory on the Musandam Peninsula was seen as a source of conflict between Oman and the various neighboring emirates of the United Arab Emirates, which united in 1971. After the outbreak of the First Gulf War in 1980, these differences seem to have subsided.
See also
literature
- Michaela Wimmer, Stefan Braun, Hannes Enzmann: Focus on golf: Background, history, analyzes . Munich 1991, ISBN 3-453-05201-3 .
- Tariq Aziz : The Iraqi-Iranian Conflict . Dar Al-Ma'mun, Baghdad 1981.
- Saddam Hussein : This is how we should fight the Persians . Ed .: Ministry of Culture and Information. Dar Al-Ma'mun, Baghdad (1980/1982).