page_title: Seizure of Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs
section_title: Aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: Seizure of Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs / Aftermath
caption_attribution_description: العربية: محمد بن سالم القاسمي حاكم رأس الخيمة يرعى رفع علم رأس الخيمة في جزيرة طنب. English: Sheikh Muhammad bin Salim Al Qasimi, Ruler of Ras Al Khaimah, raises the flag of the emirate on the island of Tunb, in the presence of British Navy officers.
context_page_description: The Seizure of Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs describes the Iranian takeover of Abu Musa and the Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb islands in 30 November 1971, when British forces withdrew from the islands in the Strait of Hormuz. After the British forces had withdrawn, the Imperial Iranian Navy took territorial control of the islands.
context_section_description: Iran justified the invasion by claiming that the islands were part of the Persian Empire since the 6th century BC. This justification was disputed by the UAE who claimed that Arabs maintained control and sovereignty of the islands since the 7th century BC. However, there is no surviving documentation from pre-colonial times regarding the sovereignty of the islands. The earliest known record regarding sovereignty in 1518 by the Portuguese claimed that the islands were in fact inhabited and ruled by Arabs.
  In the following decades, the issue remained a source of friction between the Arab states and Iran. Negotiations between the UAE and Iran in 1992 failed. The UAE have attempted to bring the dispute before the International Court of Justice, but Iran refused. Tehran says the islands always belonged to it as it had never renounced possession of the islands, and that they are part of Iranian territory. The United Arab Emirates argue that the islands were under the control of Qasimi sheikhs throughout the nineteenth century, whose rights were then inherited by the UAE after 1971. Iran counters by stating that the local Qasimi rulers during a crucial part of the nineteenth century were actually based on the Iranian, not the Arab, coast, and had thus become Persian subjects. In 1980, the UAE took its claim to the United Nations, but it was deferred by the UN Security Council at that time to a later date but was not revisited. 
  According to author Thomas Mattair, executive director of Middle East Policy Council (MEPC), given that Iran has consistently refused to consider mediation or arbitration from third-party groups such as the ICJ, Mattair considers the invasion a violation of Article 33 of the United Nations Charter.
caption: Sheikh Mohammed bin Salim Al Qassimi, previous ruler of Ras Al Khaimah raising the Ras Al Khaimah flag on Greater Tunb in the presence of British navy officers some time in between 1921-1948.
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