Page 283 - The Arabian Gulf States_Neat

BRITISH-SAUDI CONTROVERSY OVER BURAIMI 221
that the Saudi sovereignty over the Oasis, during this period, was
sufficiently established.1
(ii) 1S69-1952
It is agreed that the main criteria for establishing a title to territory
is the proof of ‘peaceful and continuous display of State authority’.2
The question now arises whether any of the parties in this dispute
has possessed such a title (a title based on peaceful and continuous
display of authority) in respect of Buraimi.

(a) The rights of the Sultan of Muscat3
It appears, in the light of the above-mentioned facts, that the Sultan
of Muscat has been far from establishing any right of sovereignty
over the Oasis; British authorities confirm that during this period, or
the greater part of it, the Sultanate’s rule was limited to the coastal
towns only. The Sultan of Muscat had, thus, wielded no power in the
interior of Oman and the Buraimi region which remained, for all
practical purposes, to be governed by independent tribal Imams and
Shaikhs. The fall of Buraimi into the hands of 'Azzan ibn Qais, the
self-imposed Imam, in the summer of 1869 did not establish a legal
title for the Sultanate, since rAzzan himself was not the legitimate
Sultan; he was then a mere usurper of the Sultanate rule, and the
British Government for that reason declined to recognise him as the
legitimate Sultan of Muscat. Moreover, the facts show that'Azzan was
merely called upon by the Buraimi tribe of Nuaim to assist them in
their action to drive out the Wahhabi governor, 'Abd al-Rahman
al-Sudairi, and to take possession of Buraimi. Having accepted this
offer, 'Azzan, with the assistance of Nuaim, succeeded, after a fierce
battle, in occupying Buraimi which he left after a few months to be
administered independently by its own tribes. Traditionally, Buraimi
had been regarded as being under the control of the Nu'aim tribe
throughout this period.4 There is also no evidence that in 1952—the
date of the arrival in Buraimi of the Saudi party under the command
of Turki ibn 'Utaishan—or during any period before that date,
Buraimi was, in fact, administered jointly by the Sultan of Muscat and
the Shaikh of Abu Dhabi.5
1 See The Legal Status of Eastern Greenland, 1933, P.C.I.J. Scries A/B. No. 53
(1933) pp. 45-6: A title to territory must consist of two essential elements, namely,
‘the intention and will to act as sovereign, and some actual exercise or display of
such authority’.
2 The Island of Palmas, op. cit., pp. 907-8.
3 Sec above, pp. 214-15.
4 See above, pp. 214-15. And sec Arabian American Oil Company, Oman and
the Southern Shore of the Persian Gulf (1952), p. 145.
6 Sec above, pp. 2i4-16. And see The Times, 27 May 1954, where no mention
is made of local resistance in Buraimi against the arrival of the Saudis. In fact