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IRAN’S OCCUPATION OF ABU MUSA AND THE TUNBS. 341
could not protect them if agreement was not reached by the time of
withdrawal’ V
After the above discussion of the question, the Somali
representative reminded the Security Council that “in the matter
under consideration, it acts in accordance with the provisions of the
Charter concerning the peaceful settlement of disputes”. (Art. 36,
paragraph 1).
On that basis, he suggested “that the Council should allow time
for quiet diplomacy to work”. And since no objection was made to
this suggestion, the President “declared that the Council would
defer consideration of the question in order to allow sufficient time
for third-party efforts to work”.2
The Merits of Iran's Claim to Abu Musa and the Tunb Islands

On 16 February 1971, the Shah of Iran was reported to have
stressed his Government’s intention to occupy the three islands “by
force if necessary”, if no peaceful arrangements for the handing i
over of the islands to Iran were made before British military
withdrawal from the Gulf at the end of that year.3 Similarly, Iranian
Prime Minister, Mr. Hoveida, and the former Foreign Minister, Mr.
Zahedi, were reported to have asserted Iran’s sovereignty over the ;
said islands. i
The Iranian Foreign Minister, Mr. Abbas Khalatbari, who
succeeded Mr. Zahedi, reiterated Iran’s title to the islands on 10
November 1971. He was reported as saying that Iran’s “sovereignty
over the islands was not negotiable ’ ’, and that Iran “would insist on
her right to the islands when the British left the Gulf, and that she
had rejected Arab suggestions that Abu Musa and the Tunbs should
be leased to Iran when Britain left the area”.4
The argument presented by the Government of Iran in support of
its sovereignty over the three islands was stated as follows:
1. The islands were owned by Iran before they were occupied by
Britain 150 years ago “on the assumption that they were essential to ;
combat piracy” in the Gulf. Consequently, “in pursuit of its
imperial interests,Great Britain considered the islands as belonging £
to the Arab Shaiks of the Trucial States”. This de facto
administration of the islands by Sharjah and Ras al Khaimah was :
i
1. Ibid. p. 77. :
2. Ibid.
3. See Churba, Joseph, Conflict and Tension Among the States of the Persian Gulf,
Oman and South Arabia, (Published by Air University Documentary Research
Study, Alabama, December 1971, p. 41.
4. Arab Report & Record, op. cit. (1970), p. 684 (1971), p. 502; Keesing’s, op. cit. p.
25010A.

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