copenlu/druid huggingface dataset:
Claim: Shatt al-Arab is a territory of Iraq (Shatt al-Arab, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2021-07-13): Tensions between Iran and Iraq began almost immediately after the establishment of the latter nation in 1921, in the aftermath of World War I. By the 1970s, one enduring source of conflict involved control of the Shatt al-Arab, the waterway formed by the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, the southern end of which forms the border between the two nations. Signed in 1975, the Algiers Agreement reduced Iraqi control over the waterway in exchange for Iran’s withdrawing support for a Kurdish insurgency in northern Iraq. A turning point occurred with the Iranian Revolution of 1978-79, which toppled the pro-Western government of Shah Mohammad Reza Pallavi in favor of a fundamentalist regime led by Shi’ite Muslim cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Saddam Hussein, who became president of Iraq and leader of the country’s Ba'ath Party in July 1979, counted on the support of his nation’s minority Sunni Muslim population, and feared an expansion of Iran’s revolution to Shi’ite-dominated Iraq. Saddam also sought to overturn the border agreements of 1975 and reassert control over both sides of the Shatt al-Arab, Iraq’s only access point to the Persian Gulf.
Claim: Shatt al-Arab is a territory of Iraq (Shatt al-Arab, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-10-07): Iraq is one of the easternmost countries of the Arab world, located at about the same latitude as the southern United States. It is bordered to the north by Turkey, to the east by Iran, to the west by Syria and Jordan, and to the south by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Iraq has 36 miles (58 km) of coastline along the northern end of the Persian Gulf, giving it a tiny sliver of territorial sea. Followed by Jordan, it is thus the Middle Eastern state with the least access to the sea and offshore sovereignty. [...] The plains of lower Mesopotamia extend southward some 375 miles (600 km) from Balad on the Tigris and Al-Ramādī on the Euphrates to the Persian Gulf. They cover more than 51,000 square miles (132,000 square km), almost one-third of the country’s area, and are characterized by low elevation, below 300 feet (100 metres), and poor natural drainage. Large areas are subject to widespread seasonal flooding, and there are extensive marshlands, some of which dry up in the summer to become salty wastelands. Near Al-Qurnah, where the Tigris and Euphrates converge to form the Shaṭṭ al-ʿArab, there are still some inhabited marshes. The alluvial plains contain extensive lakes. The swampy Lake Al-Ḥammār (Hawr al-Ḥammār) extends 70 miles (110 km) from Basra (Al-Baṣrah) to Sūq al-Shuyūkh; its width varies from 8 to 15 miles (13 to 25 km).
Claim: Shatt al-Arab is a territory of Iraq (Shatt al-Arab, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2023-12-15): Israel was not happy with these initiatives, and was particularly displeased by the Shah’s signing of an agreement in 1975 with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq which settled a territorial dispute over the Shatt al-Arab waterway in Iran’s favor in exchange for the Shah ending support for Iraqi Kurds fighting Baghdad. (The CIA also walked away from the Kurds at the time at the Shah’s insistence.) Israel, then as now a supporter of the Iraqi Kurds, felt betrayed by this act and lost faith in the Shah as an ally. Israel saw Iran’s more conciliatory approach to Arab radicals as potentially shifting the balance of power against Israel. Israel has always preferred some tension between Iran and the Arabs in order to use them against each other.
Claim: Shatt al-Arab is a territory of Iraq (Shatt al-Arab, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-08-01): Formerly part of the Ottoman Empire, Iraq was occupied by the United Kingdom during World War I and was declared a League of Nations mandate under UK administration in 1920. Iraq attained its independence as a kingdom in 1932. It was proclaimed a republic in 1958 after a coup overthrew the monarchy, but in actuality, a series of strongmen ruled the country until 2003. The last was SADDAM Hussein, from 1979 to 2003. Territorial disputes with Iran led to an inconclusive and costly war from 1980 to 1988. In 1990, Iraq seized Kuwait but was expelled by US-led UN coalition forces during the two-month-long Gulf War of 1991. After Iraq's expulsion, the UN Security Council (UNSC) required Iraq to scrap all weapons of mass destruction and long-range missiles and to allow UN verification inspections. Continued Iraqi noncompliance with UNSC resolutions led to the Second Gulf War in 2003, when US-led forces ousted the SADDAM regime. [...] Euphrates river mouth (shared with Turkey[s], Syria, and Iran) - 3,596 km; Tigris river mouth (shared with Turkey[s], Syria, and Iran) - 1,950 km; the Tigris and Euphrates join to form the Shatt al Arab note – [s] after country name indicates river source; [m] after country name indicates river mouth [...] Geography - note strategic location on Shatt al Arab waterway and at the head of the Persian Gulf
Claim: Shatt al-Arab is a territory of Iran (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 Iran (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).
Claim: Shatt al-Arab is a territory of Iran (Shatt al-Arab, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-09-22): The frequent and blatant Iranian violations of Iraqi sovereignty...have rendered the 1975 Algiers Agreement null and void... This river [Shatt al-Arab]...must have its Iraqi-Arab identity restored as it was throughout history in name and in reality with all the disposal rights emanating from full sovereignty over the river...We in no way wish to launch war against Iran.[21] [...] There remains the issue of sovereignty over Shatt al-Arab. ... Granted that this might have been a genuine motive for abrogating the 1975 treaty, and reclaiming title to the whole Shatt, what was the point of the invasion on September 22? Iraq had taken back by unilateral action on September 10 the only strips of territory it still claimed under the treaty. There was no longer any 'territory' as such on the other side to conquer. The Ba'th had already followed the Shah's example of 1971 when he unilaterally took over the three islands in the Gulf.
Claim: Shatt al-Arab is a territory of Iran (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 Iran (Shatt al-Arab, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2023-04-13): Among the causes of the war—the ruthless ambition of Saddam Hussein; ongoing disputes over control of the strategic Shatt al-Arab waterway, a shipping lane formed by the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers that created the southern borders of both countries; the struggle for dominance in the Persian Gulf region—the overriding issue was a centuries-old dispute regarding sovereignty over oil-rich Khuzestan Province in southwestern Iran. Khuzestan was the ancient home of the empire of Elam, an independent, non-Semitic, non-Indo-European-speaking kingdom whose territory spanned almost all of present-day southwestern Iran. Khuzestan had been attacked and occupied many times by various Arab kingdoms of Mesopotamia, the precursors of modern-day Iraq.
Claim: Shatt al-Arab is a territory of Iran (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 Iran (Shatt al-Arab, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2023-05-01): Taking advantage of the confusion and chaos surrounding the change of power there, Saddam Hussein’s regime hoped to fill the regional power vacuum that had been created. Baghdad also had set its sights on the conquest of Khuzestan – an ethnically Arab province of Iran, bordering on the Iraqi province of Basra and the Persian Gulf – and on regaining full control over the Shatt al-Arab (after the humiliation of the 1975 Algiers Treaty), which would eliminate Iraq’s landlocked situation. [...] An immediate cause of the war was the long-standing question of sovereignty over the Shatt al-Arab (in Arabic), or Arvand-Rud (in Persian). The 200-kilometre-long waterway, of which the last 80 kilometres form the frontier between Iran and Iraq, is strategically important for both countries, because Basra, the only Iraqi port with access to the Persian Gulf, lies upstream, and both countries have oil installations near the waterway. Iraq and Iran had engaged in border clashes for many years but reached an agreement in 1975 in Algiers, before Saddam Hussein in late August 1980 issued an ultimatum demanding that Iran grant Iraq sovereignty over the Shatt al-Arab. When the ultimatum expired without a reaction by the Iranian government, Iraqi troops invaded Iran.
Claim: Shatt al-Arab is a territory of Iran (Shatt al-Arab, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2022-05-30): The Shatt al-Arab River (SAR) is a transboundary river between Iraq and Iran. The bulk of it has traditionally been under Iraqi jurisdiction, yet Iran has always held significant influence. This paper applies the framework of hydro-hegemony to distinguish between two different hegemonic configurations operated over SAR. In the first period, Iran exercised coercive tactics, prompting Iraq to sign the Algeria Accord in 1975. However, after four years, the eight-year war between the two states revoked this institutional order, paving the way for a new era. During this period, which began dominantly after 2003, Iran exerted soft power. The Iranian Islamic regime manipulated ties with Iraqi elites to influence the course of Iraqi policy. Nonetheless, by helping Iraqis defeat ISIS and curbing the Kurdish issues following their referendum to separate from Iraq in 2017, Iran ensured the majority of Iraqis' willing acquiescence. Consequently, it contained SAR on its own terms. [...] Al-Jaffal, O. (2019) Will Iraq lose its benefits from Shatt al-Arab river to Iran? Al-monitor the Pulse of the Middle East. 23 March 2019. Retrieved from: https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2019/03/iran-iraq-shatt-al-arab.html (accessed 8 September 2018). [...] Khalil, S. 2018. The taluk line creeps towards Iraq and takes hold of Shatt al-Arab, Rawabet Center for Research and Strategic Studies. Retrieved from https://rawabetcenter.com/en/?p=5307 (accessed 4 March 2020)
Claim: Shatt al-Arab is a territory of Iran (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] [...] Geography [edit]The Shatt al-Arab is formed by the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers at Al-Qurnah, and flows into the Persian Gulf south of the city of Al-Faw. It receives the Karun at Khorramshahr. [...] - ^ "Shatt al Arab". Oxford Public International Law. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
Claim: Shatt al-Arab is a territory of Iran (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 Iran (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. [...] On two separate occasions, Iranian forces operating on the Shatt al-Arab captured British Royal Navy sailors who they claimed had trespassed into their territory. [...] 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.
Claim: Shatt al-Arab is a territory of Iran (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 Iran (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 Iran (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). [...] 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). [...] For greater detail see Richard Schofield, "Interpreting a Vague River Boundary Delimitation: The 1847 Erzurum Treaty and the Shatt al-Arab before 1913," in The Boundaries of Modern Iran, ed. Keith McLachlan (London: UCL Press, 1994), pp. 72–92.
Claim: Shatt al-Arab is a territory of Iran (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 Iran (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.