A Colonial Legacy: The Dispute Over the Islands of Abu Musa, and the Greater and Lesser Tumbs

This book deals with the legal status of the three islands of Abu Musa, and the Greater and Lesser Tumbs. In December 1971, the sixty-seven years of the Anglo-Iranian dispute over the islands transformed itself into Irano-UAE conflict—a conflict which Iran considers a colonial legacy inherited by the United Arab Emirates. The alliance of convenience between Iran and Britain cemented under Shah Abbas in the early seventeenth century had faded away by the mid-eighteenth century, after the collapse of the Safavid Dynasty. During the nineteenth century, the Anglo-Iranian relationship evolved into mutual distrust and resentment. The matter is complex, particulary because material facts and evidence, relating to a very short span of time in the nineteenth century, are ambiguous and debatable. British Colonial interests and past interventions have marred the evidence. Hence, clarification of the material facts and the choice of applicable law form the crux of the present study. This is a multi-disciplinary study, dealing with geography, history, economics, politics, international relations and law.