SAEDNEWS: You’ve probably heard the UAE’s baseless claims over our three islands—Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb, and Abu Musa. Beyond the fact that some of the trees on these islands are older than the UAE itself, what’s the historical story behind them?
According to Saed News, the first point is that these islands have historically belonged to Iran. Inscriptions found on the islands are in Persian, and travel accounts from Roman and Greek visitors indicate that the residents spoke Persian.
Even setting aside ancient Iran, maps from the Safavid and Qajar eras show that all the islands of the Persian Gulf were part of Iran. However, when Britain entered the Persian Gulf during the Pahlavi period, this arrangement was disrupted, and it was decided that Iran and the United Arab Emirates would jointly administer the islands.
This agreement was temporary, and the Emirati side later reneged on it. The Pahlavi government then seized the islands through a military operation, prompting the UAE to file a complaint with the United Nations. Legal disputes continued for several months until, through the mediation of the UN and Britain, it was agreed that Iran would cede Bahrain but retain full sovereignty over the three islands. The reality, however, is that while Iran gave up Bahrain, the UAE has not relinquished its claims to the three islands.
