UAE Sovereignty Over The Three Islands

The rejection by the United Arab Emirates Iran’s aggression as the demand for the elimination of such aggression emanates from the Emirates firm belief in its sovereignty over the three Islands. In this regard the following factors are mentioned.
- The residences of these Islands are Arabs whose mother tongue is Arabic. They have inseparable family and commercial ties with the Arab Coast of the Gulf. They also belong to prominent Arab tribes of Al-Sudan, Al-Boumheir, Bani Hammad, Al-Shawames, Bani Tamim.
- The historical record confirms that these Islands belonged to the Qawasim of Sharjah and Ras al-Khaimah since at least 18th century. This was the situation when the British came to the region and concluded several agreements with the Rulers of the Emirates, including the first agreement of 1820. The advent of the British did not affect the sovereignty exercised by the Qawasim of Sharjah and Ras al-Khaimah over the Islands, since the two Emirates were at the time a single and united Qawasim Emirate. When Ras al-Khaimah was separated from Sharjah at the beginning of the 20th Century, the Island of Abu Musa reverted to the Qawasim of Sharjah, while that of Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb passed to the Qawasim of Ras al-Khaimah. The Qawasim possessed these Islands continuously, peacefully, and without interruption until November 1971. Throughout those years, they exercised such acts of sovereignty as were compatible with the size, physical features, and population density of the three Islands. Nothing in the historical record indicated that sovereignty over the three Islands was abandoned at any point in time, or that the Qawasim ceased to look after the affairs of the Islands. By contrast Iran’s claims that were made on the Islands were contested.