copenlu/druid huggingface dataset:
Claim: Shatt al-Arab is a territory of Iraq (Shatt al-Arab, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (1998-07-20): Shaṭṭ Al-ʿArab, river in southeastern Iraq, formed by the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers at the town of Al-Qurnah. It flows southeastward for 120 miles (193 km) and passes the Iraqi port of Basra and the Iranian port of Ābādān before emptying into the Persian Gulf. For about the last half of its course the river forms the border between Iraq and Iran; it receives a tributary, the Kārūn River, from the eastern (Iranian) side. Its width increases from about 120 feet (37 metres) at Basra to 0.5 mile (0.8 km) at its mouth. Along the settled banks there are date palm groves, which are naturally irrigated by tidal action. The Kārūn River empties large quantities of silt into the Shaṭṭ Al-ʿArab, necessitating continuous dredging to keep the channel navigable for shallow-draft oceangoing vessels. The present river pattern probably is relatively recent, but its mode of formation is uncertain. The Tigris and Euphrates possibly once flowed to the Persian Gulf by a more westerly channel, while the Shaṭṭ Al-ʿArab’s present lower course may have been part of the Kārūn. In the 1980s the Shaṭṭ Al-ʿArab was the scene of prolonged and intense fighting between Iraq and Iran; the former had invaded the latter in 1980 after asserting Iraqi sovereignty over both banks of the river (see Iran-Iraq War). The exact demarcation of the boundary remained unresolved after the war.
Claim: Shatt al-Arab is a territory of Iraq (Shatt al-Arab, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2012-03-30): The boundary disputes. The main dispute revolved around the demarcation of the boundary in the Shatt al-Arab waterway and the Iraqi claim to the Iranian province of Khuzestan. According to the pan-Arab ideology of the Ba’th party, Khuzestan belonged to the Arab nation and should return to Arab hands (Pipes, p. 23). The most important bone of contention, however, was over the Shatt al-Arab waterway, which is formed by the confluence of the Tigris, Euphrates, and Kārun rivers (Grummon, p. 3). The final 55 miles of the 130-mile Shatt al-Arab waterway form the frontier between Iraq and Iran. The Shatt al-Arab is of economic and strategic importance to both countries. Basra, the only Iraqi port with an outlet to the Persian Gulf, lies 47 miles upstream, and large oil installations in both countries are located near the Shatt al-Arab (for a historical sketch of the disputes, see v and vi, above; see also Pārsādust, 1990a). [...] Furthermore, Hussein declared in the same speech that the entire Shatt al-Arab had been Iraqi-Arab throughout history and that Iraqi authority over the Shatt al-Arab should be restored. Five days later, the Iraqi army crossed the border (see Pārsādust, 1990b; Anvari Tehrani, 1993).
Claim: Shatt al-Arab is a territory of Iraq (Shatt al-Arab, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2018-06-15): Iran Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (1969). Some facts concerning the dispute between Iran and Iraq over the Shatt al Arab. Tehran: Ministry of Foreign Affairs Publication. [...] McLachlan, K. (1989). Boundaries with the Ottoman Empire. In E. Yarshater (Ed.), Encyclopaedia Iranica (Vol. 4, p. 401). London—New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Claim: Shatt al-Arab is a territory of Iraq (Shatt al-Arab, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2007-08-09): Book contents - Frontmatter - Contents - List of illustrations - Chronology - Glossary - List of abbreviations - Map 1 Iraq: principal towns - Map 2 Basra, Kuwait and the Shatt al-ʿArab - Map 3 Iraq and the Middle East - Map 4 Kurdish Iraq - Introduction - 1 The Ottoman provinces of Baghdad, Basra and Mosul - 2 The British Mandate - 3 The Hashemite monarchy 1932–41 - 4 The Hashemite monarchy 1941–58 - 5 The republic 1958–68 - 6 The Baʿth and the rule of Saddam Husain 1968–2003 - 7 The American occupation and the parliamentary republic - Conclusion - Notes - Bibliography - Further reading and research - Index Map 2 - Basra, Kuwait and the Shatt al-ʿArab Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2014 - Frontmatter - Contents - List of illustrations - Chronology - Glossary - List of abbreviations - Map 1 Iraq: principal towns - Map 2 Basra, Kuwait and the Shatt al-ʿArab - Map 3 Iraq and the Middle East - Map 4 Kurdish Iraq - Introduction - 1 The Ottoman provinces of Baghdad, Basra and Mosul - 2 The British Mandate - 3 The Hashemite monarchy 1932–41 - 4 The Hashemite monarchy 1941–58 - 5 The republic 1958–68 - 6 The Baʿth and the rule of Saddam Husain 1968–2003 - 7 The American occupation and the parliamentary republic - Conclusion - Notes - Bibliography - Further reading and research - Index
Claim: Shatt al-Arab is a territory of Iraq (Shatt al-Arab, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-04-15): Negotiations [edit]In 1973, Iraq began negotiations with Iran, hoping that it would end Iranian support for the Kurdish rebellion. In late April, a meeting was held in Geneva between the countries' foreign ministers. Iraqi representatives demanded that the 1937 treaty be adhered to, which gives most of the Shatt al-Arab to Iraq, but Iranian representatives refused.[10] Discussions failed, but meetings continued to be held between the two countries. Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was completely inflexible, and sought control over half of the Shatt al-Arab (Arvand Rud). After the Shatt al-Arab discussions were completed, Iraq also sought the end to Iranian support of the Kurds.[11] In May 1974, Iraq and Iran started the process of marking the Shatt al-Arab (Arvand Rud) boundary between them. In the 1974 Arab League summit, representatives from Iran's government attended to talk with Iraqi representatives with the mediation of King of Jordan Hussein.[12] Talks continued between the two countries sporadically, Iraq was reluctant to abandon territory which had been assigned to it in the 1937 treaty. Iran increased its support of the Kurds, which substantially increased problems for the Iraqi military. Saddam Hussein and Mohammad Reza Pahlavi attended the OPEC summit on 6 March 1975 in Algiers, where an agreement was made and signed with the mediation of Houari Boumédiène, the then Chairman of the Revolutionary Council of Algeria.
Claim: Shatt al-Arab is a territory of Iraq (Shatt al-Arab, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2017-04-25): The Shatt al-Arab appears to have formed quite recently in the Earth's geologic time scale. Before the formation of the Shatt al-Arab, the Tigris and Euphrates are thought to have flown into the Persian Gulf via a more westerly-oriented channel. However, ever since its formation, the Shatt al-Arab has served as an important navigable route for the people settled along its banks. Since a long time ago, many have fought over the region containing modern-day Iran and Iraq, and especially constantly striven for control of the Shatt al-Arab territory. In 1935, as per the decision of an international commission, Iraq received complete control over the Shatt al-Arab territory, and Iran withheld the rights to maintain and manage only its Abadan and Khorramshahr ports along the river. This forced Iran to build alternative ports in the Persian Gulf. By the end of the 1970s, tension was high among the countries regarding the control of the Shatt al-Arab, and a full-fledged war broke out between them in 1980 as a result, and this conflict continued for eight years. The war involved a series of attacks from both sides on coastal areas along the Shatt al-Arab.
Claim: Shatt al-Arab is a territory of Iraq (Shatt al-Arab, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-10-01): The Shatt al-Arab (Arabic: شط العرب, lit. 'River of the Arabs'; Persian: اروندرود, romanized: Arvand Rud, lit. 'Swift River'[5]) is a river about 200 kilometres (120 mi) in length that is formed at the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in the town of al-Qurnah in the Basra Governorate of southern Iraq. The southern end of the river constitutes the Iran–Iraq border down to its mouth, where it discharges into the Persian Gulf. The Shatt al-Arab varies in width from about 232 metres (761 ft) at Basra to 800 metres (2,600 ft) at its mouth. It is thought that the waterway formed relatively recently in geological time, with the Tigris and Euphrates originally emptying into the Persian Gulf via a channel further to the west. Kuwait's Bubiyan Island is part of the Shatt al-Arab delta.[1] [...] Dispute over the river occurred during the Ottoman-Safavid era, prior to the establishment of an independent Iraq in the 20th century. In the early 16th century, the Iranian Safavids gained most of what is present-day Iraq, including Shatt al-Arab. They later lost these territories to the expanding Ottomans following the Peace of Amasya (1555).[8] [...] - ^ "Shatt al Arab". Oxford Public International Law. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
Claim: Shatt al-Arab is a territory of Iraq (Shatt al-Arab, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-04-12): The Shatt al-Arab, known in Iran as the Arvand Rud, is a river in Southwest Asia stretching more than 200 kilometers (124 mi) in length. It is formed by the confluence of the Euphrates and the Tigris in the town of al-Qurnah in southern Iraq. The southern end of the river constitutes the border between Iraq and Iran to the mouth of the river where it discharges into the Persian Gulf. The river varies in width from about 232 meters (760 ft) at Basra to 800 meters (2,600 ft) at its mouth. It is thought that the waterway formed relatively recently in geologic time, with the Tigris River and Euphrates River originally emptying into the Persian Gulf via a channel farther to the west. [...] The Shatt al-Arab suffers from the religion and politics of the neighboring nations, Iran and Iraq, whose border falls in the river at its southern end. But control of the waterway and its use as a border have been a source of contention between the predecessors of the Iranian and Iraqi states since a peace treaty was signed in 1639 between the Persian and the Ottoman Empires. UnderSaddam Hussein, Iraq claimed the entire waterway up to the Iranian shore as its territory and invaded Iran in 1980 to back this up. [...] Notes - ↑ United Nations Environment Programme, Shatt al-Arab Retrieved September 12, 2015.
Claim: Shatt al-Arab is a territory of Iraq (Shatt al-Arab, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2023-11-24): The Shatt al-Arab dispute was a territorial dispute that took place in the Shatt al-Arab region from 1936 until 1975. The Shatt al-Arab was considered an important channel for the oil exports of both Iran and Iraq, and in 1937, Iran and the newly independent Iraq signed a treaty to settle the dispute. In the 1975 Algiers Agreement, Iraq made territorial concessions—including the Shatt al-Arab waterway—in exchange for normalized relations. In return for Iraq agreeing that the frontier on the waterway ran along the entire thalweg, Iran ended its support for the Peshmerga in the Second Iraqi–Kurdish War. The Iraqi government reneged on the Agreement shortly before launching the Iran-Iraq War in 1980, but accepted it once more after the war.[1] [...] Clashes [edit]Pahlavi Iran-Iraqi Kingdom tensions [edit]The Shatt al-Arab was considered an important channel for both states' oil exports, and in 1937, Iran and the newly independent Iraq signed a treaty to settle the dispute. In the same year, Iran and Iraq both joined the Treaty of Saadabad, and relations between the two states remained good for decades afterwards.[3]
Claim: Shatt al-Arab is a territory of Iraq (Shatt al-Arab, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2007-03-26): Houchang Chehabi, professor of International Relations and History at Boston University, explains the history of the Shatt al-Arab, the river that divides Iraq and Iran. [...] SIEGEL: Like many places along borders of countries that speak different languages, the Shatt al-Arab also has a Persian name, the Iranians would refer to it, not necessarily as the Shatt al-Arab, I gather? [...] SIEGEL: This is Professor Houchang Chehabi of Boston University talking with us about the Shatt al-Arab waterway, the river that separates Iran from Iraq.
Claim: Shatt al-Arab is a territory of Iraq (Shatt al-Arab, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-01-01): Kaiyan Homi Kaikobad, The Shatt-al-Arab Boundary Question: A Legal Reappraisal (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988). [...] The reactivation of the dispute in the late 1960s (culminating in April 1969 with the shah’s abrogation of the 1937 Tehran treaty) resulted in the appearance of a number of articles, of which Alexander Melamid’s and Vahé Sevian’s are the best (A. Melamid, "The Shatt al-Arab Boundary Dispute," in The Middle East Journal, vol. 22 (1968), pp. 351–57 [...] See Melamid, "The Shatt al-Arab boundary dispute"; Richard Schofield, "Positional Disputes and the Twentieth Century Utilisation of the Shatt al-Arab—International Right or International Need," in Boundaries and State Territory in the Middle East and North Africa, ed. G.H. Blake and R.N. Schofield (Wisbech: Menas Press, 1987).
Claim: Shatt al-Arab is a territory of Iraq (Shatt al-Arab, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-10-06): The 1974–1975 Shatt al-Arab conflict consisted of armed cross-border clashes between Iran and Iraq. It was a major escalation of the Shatt al-Arab dispute, which had begun in 1936 due to opposing territorial claims by both countries over the Shatt al-Arab, a transboundary river that runs partly along the Iran–Iraq border. The conflict took place between April 1974 and March 1975, and resulted in over 1,000 total casualties for both sides combined, though the Iranians eventually came to hold a strategic advantage over the Iraqis. Open hostilities formally came to an end with the 1975 Algiers Agreement, in which Iraq ceded around half of the border area containing the waterway in exchange for Iran's cessation of support for Iraqi Kurdish rebels. [...] Consequently, Iraq decided against continuing the conflict, and chose instead to make concessions to Tehran to end the Kurdish rebellion.[12][13] In the 1975 Algiers Agreement, Iraq made territorial concessions—including the Shatt al-Arab waterway—in exchange for normalized bilateral relations.[12] In return for Iraq recognizing that the frontier on the waterway ran along the entire thalweg as per Iran's argument, the latter ended its support for Iraqi Kurdish guerrillas.[12][16][17]
Claim: Shatt al-Arab is a territory of Iraq (Shatt al-Arab, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2022-04-09): The present study reports on the presence of the Amazon sailfin catfish in the Shatt al-Arab River at Basrah, Iraq, where 175 individuals of P. pardalis were collected in 2017. This is the first record of this species from the freshwater system of Iraq in general and from the Shatt al-Arab River in particular. The Shatt al-Arab River, which originates from the convergence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, is the main surface water source in lower Mesopotamia and serves around three million people, the majority of which live in the city of Basrah (Mahmood & Feachem 1987). The river is widely used for human consumption, agricultural, trade and industrial activities, transportation, electric power plants, and recreation. This river suffered from a massive regression in water quality related to the decline in rates of discharge from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (Al-Mahmood et al. 2015) as a result of several hydrological constructions in the riparian countries (Partow 2001) and of the diversion of the Karun River into Iranian territory (Hameed & Aljorany 2011). The average rate of discharge in the upper part of the Shatt al-Arab River declined from 207 m3/s in 1977–1978 to 60 m3/s in 2014 (AlaidanI 2014). The decrease of freshwater inflow into the estuary has allowed saltwater to intrude about 80 km upstream from the river mouth (Abdullah et al. 2016).
Claim: Shatt al-Arab is a territory of Iraq (Shatt al-Arab, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-04-19): The departure of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi from Iran in January 1979 and the subsequent establishment of the Islamic Republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini marked a profound ideological shift in Iran.8 This transformation represented not just a change in governance but a radical re-orientation of the country’s political, social, and international identity, from a secular, pro-Western monarchy to a theocratic, anti-Western regime.9 Saddam Hussein’s rise to power as the President of Iraq in 1979 further intensified these dynamics.10 In January of 1980, Abolhassan Bani-Sadr was elected as Iran’s first president.11 That same year, a diplomatic rift started on March 8 when Iran withdrew its ambassador from Iraq.12 In April, assassination attempts on Iraq’s Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz and Minister of Culture and Information Latif Nusseif al-Jasim—both attributed to Iranian agents—further inflamed the situation.13 Between May and August, clashes along the Iraq-Iran border intensified, signaling a clear escalation in hostilities.14 A critical turning point came on September 17 when Iraq abrogated the 1975 Algiers Agreement by declaring full sovereignty over the Shatt al-Arab waterway.15 This move effectively dismantled the fragile peace established by the agreement.
Claim: Shatt al-Arab is a territory of Iraq (Shatt al-Arab, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-10-07): Rather than settling the border disputes between the Ottoman and Persian empires once and for all, the Treaty of Erzurum outlined the dispute that would poison the relations between the two empires and their successor states for a century and a half. Whereas the treaty implicitly confirmed the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire over the whole Shatt al-Arab, the river which is formed by the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates and joins them to the Persian Gulf, in Article 2 the Ottoman sultan ceded some territories on the left bank of the river, between Khorramshahr and Abadan, to the shah of Persia. In the same article, the right of free navigation from the Persian Gulf to these points was guaranteed to the Persians. Hereby the treaty helped set the margins for the future conflicts over the status of the Shatt al-Arab, which forms modern Iraq’s major outlet to the sea, and adjacent lands.
Claim: Shatt al-Arab is a territory of Iraq (Shatt al-Arab, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2004-07-20): SHATT al-ARAB (ŠAṬṬ al-ʿARAB), name given to the ca. 200 km long, 400-1500 m wide (Rzóska, p. 47), combined effluent of the Euphrates and Tigris below Qurna, to which the Karun (Kārūn) contributes from Khorramshahr (Ḵorramšahr; formerly, until 1937, Moḥammara) southward. The name derives from Arabic šaṭṭ "bank, side" , with reference to a river (Eilers, pp. 301, 316; cf. New Persian rud-bār; hence not the "Arab stream" as stated by Le Strange, p. 26). The Shatt al-Arab is influenced by tides in the Persian Gulf, from ca. 5 m around Basra to ca. 3 m at its mouth, which contribute to the high level of dissolved salts in it (Rzóska, pp. 47, 68-72). While only 10 percent of the sediment deposited in the Shatt al-Arab is brought by the Tigris and Euphrates, 90 percent is carried south by the Karun (Cressey, p. 449), and "depressions, inundation basins and marshes act as silt tanks" (Rzóska, p. 52). At different times in the past, massive dredging operations have been undertaken in order to keep the Shatt al-Arab navigable (e.g. Ferrier, p. 449 ff).
Claim: Shatt al-Arab is a territory of Iraq (Shatt al-Arab, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-02-27): Iraqi maps of the region show Iraqi territory in pale gray and Iran in dark gray. But a large zone, corresponding roughly to the Iranian province of Khuzistan (or Arabistan as it is termed in Iraq), is marked out separately in alternating shades of gray. With a population of ethnic (and linguistic) Arab stock that has coexisted uneasily with the Iranian majority of the country, the area has been a battleground for ambitious regional potentates since ancient times. The Shatt al Arab river is both a natural border line for Khuzistan, between modern Iraq and Iran, and a strategically vital means of access for the cities on both sides. For Iraq, the Shatt al Arab is only one of its geographic vulnerabilities in the area. Another feature of the map is that, between Fao and Umm Qasr, Iraq has less than 50 miles of coastline on the Gulf-most of it unusable for shipping. The main port, Basra, is nearly twice that distance away from the Gulf, up the Shatt al Arab, and even in the best of times it has a three-month cargo bottleneck. Umm Qasr, the Iraqi naval base, lies on the border with Kuwait, and can only be reached by sea through a narrow passage between the Iraqi shore and Kuwaiti islands. The approach to Fao and the entrance to the Shatt estuary is commanded by Iranian artillery and naval posts on and around Abadan island.
Claim: Shatt al-Arab is a territory of Iraq (Shatt al-Arab, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2020-04-24): The study area is situated within the Mesopotamia Plain of the Outer Platform47. The river watershed is mainly covered by Holocene alluvial sediments with marine influence in the southern parts at the Arabian Gulf coasts48,49. Originating from the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers at the Qurna City, the Shatt Al-Arab River flows to the southwest for 101 km before it constitutes the boundary between Iraq and Iran for the last 91 km of its main course until draining into the Arabian Gulf. The Shatt Al-Arab has a total length of 192 km, and a width ranging from 300 m at its origin to 700 m near the Basra City and around 800 m at its mouth50. The river has a depth that ranges between 8-15 m, considering tides51. The river watershed is generally characterized by flat, low-gradient landscapes of around 1 cm/km52. An area of approximately 145 km2 drains directly to the river basin downstream of the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers (excluding the Euphrates and Tigris Basin areas)53.
Claim: Shatt al-Arab is a territory of Iraq (Shatt al-Arab, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2017-10-01): Since the Ottoman–Persian Wars of the 16th and 17th centuries, Iran (known as "Persia" prior to 1935) and the Ottomans fought over Iraq (then known as Mesopotamia) and full control of the Shatt al-Arab until the signing of the Treaty of Zuhab in 1639, which established the final borders between the two countries. The Shatt al-Arab was considered an important channel for both states’ oil exports, and in 1937, Iran and the newly independent Iraq signed a treaty to settle the dispute. In the same year, Iran and Iraq both joined the Treaty of Saadabad, and relations between the two states remained good for decades afterwards. [...] In the 1975 Algiers Agreement, Iraq made territorial concessions—including the Shatt al-Arab waterway—in exchange for normalized relations. In return for Iraq recognizing that the frontier on the waterway ran along the entire thalweg, Iran ended its support of Iraq’s Kurdish guerrillas. Iraqis viewed the Algiers Agreement as humiliating. Tensions between Iraq and Iran were fueled by Iran’s Islamic revolution and its appearance of being a Pan-Islamic force in contrast to Iraq’s Arab nationalism. Despite Iraq’s goals of regaining the Shatt al-Arab, the Iraqi government seemed to initially welcome Iran’s Revolution, which overthrew Iran’s Shah, seen as a common enemy. It is difficult to pinpoint when tensions began to build.
Claim: Shatt al-Arab is a territory of Iraq (Shatt al-Arab, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2022-12-23): The Shatt al-Arab river is formed by the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in Iraq. The river constitutes the border between Iraq and Iran on the last 50 miles of the river flowing down to the Persian Gulf (Francona, 2001). Being the only access point of Iraq to the Persian Gulf, the Shatt al-Arab has a strategic importance for the country’s transportation and exports. Moreover, given the arid climate in this part of the Middle East, the water from the river is crucial for agriculture (ICE, 1998). [...] In addition, the Shatt al-Arab symbolises a cultural and historical line between both countries, being a boundary between Persians under a Shia government and Arabs under a Sunni government (ICE, 1998). It was also a point of contention between the Ottoman and Persian empires for centuries as both empires sought to gain control of the river (Francona, 2001).