Page 417 - The Arabian Gulf States_Neat

MONOGRAPH FOUR I
1
!
I. Agreement Concerning Sovereignty over the Islands of al-Arabiyah
and Farsi and Delimitation of the Continental Shelf Between Iran and Saudi
Arabia. 24 October. 19682.

This Agreement on the Iran-Saudi Arabia Continental Shelf
boundary has modified, in favour of Iran, the median line approved
by the former Agreement of 1965, which was initialed, but never
ratified, by the two countries. It is understood that Iran became l
reluctant to ratify the 1965 Agreement after the discovery of new
mineral resources on the Saudi Arabian side of the northern zone of
the boundary line.
Accordingly, Iran contended that in those circumstances, the
1965 Agreement did not provide an equitable division of the seabed !
resources.3 The revisions made by the Agreement of 1968 affected,
basically, the boundary line between points 8 and 14. Otherwise, the i
continental shelf boundary of 1968 is, like the 1965 boundary,
essentially a straight line that gave half effect to the Iranian island of ;
Khark. As a result of the above revisions, the present continental
shelf boundary, as defined by the 1968 Agreement, “crosses and :
recrosses”, in a zig-zag manner, the 1965 median line connecting
points 8 and 14. without a great deal of deviation from the latter.4
The provisions regarding the settlement of the dispute between
the two countries over the sovereignty of the islands of al-Arabiyah t
and Farsi are basically the same in the former and present
agreements.
The continental shelf Agreement of 24 October 1968,s was
formally ratified on 29 January 1969, in accordance with the
“-V
constitutional systems of both Iran and Saudi Arabia.
The Agreement compises five Articles which may be summarised 32
as follows:
Article 1. The Parties mutually recognise the sovereignty of Saudi Arabia
over the island of Al-Arabiyah and of Iran over the island of Farsi. Each
island shall possess a belt of territorial sea twelve nautical miles in width,
measured from the line of lowest low water on each of the said islands. In
1. See Chapter 17, above.
2. Sec p. 310 above.
3. See Department of State (USA). The Geographer, International Boundary
Study, Series A. Limits in the seas No. 24, Continental Shelf Boundary: Iran —
Saudi Arabia pp. 3-4.
4. Ibid.
5. See Appendix No. 17