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354 THK LEGAL STATUS OF THF. ARABIAN GULF STATES
air-space above any part of the continental shelf.
Article 5 provides that the Agreement shall be ratified and that it
shall enter into force from the date of the exchange of the
instruments of ratification.
The above-mentioned Agreement involves the following
principles: (a) It is based on the principle of equidistance, measured
from base lines on the coast of the two countries, (b) All islands
between the coasts of Iran and Qatar were disregarded in
determining the median line which divides the continental shelf
between the two countries, (c) The boundary line is delimited except
for the segment from Point (1) to Point (2). The indefinite location of
Point (1) is necessitated by the fact that the Bahrain-Qatar
continental shelf boundary still awaits delimitation. The potential
Bahrain-Qatar boundary line would intersect the Iran-Qatar
boundary line somewhere between Point (1) and Point (2),
depending, of course, on the exact location of Point (l).1
Point (2), which is the northern terminus of the Iran-Qatar
delimited continental shelf boundary, is located at a distance of
about 30.5 nautical miles from the Bahrain-Saudi Arabia
Continental Shelf Boundary of 1958.2
3. Agreement Concerning Delimitation of the Continental Shelf Between
Bahrain and Iran, 17 June, 1971.
The Agreement on the delimitation of the continental shelf
boundary line between Bahrain and Iran was signed in Bahrain on 17
June 1971.3 It came into effect on 14 May, 1972, after the exchange
of its instruments of ratification.
The Agreement confirms in its preamble the principles of
international law as a basis for establishing “in a just, equitable and
precise manner”, the continental shelf boundary between Bahrain
and Iran. It contains five Articles as follows:
Article 1 provides that the boundary line separating the submarine
areas which appertain to Bahrain from those which appertain to Iran
consist of geodetic lines between 4 definitive points, the latitudes
and longitudes of which are defined in the Article.
Article 2 deals with the question of directional drilling from an oil
field, or a geographical structure, which extends across the other
side of the boundary line. It states that no such action shall be taken
by the parties within an area of less than 125 metres on either side of
the line except by mutual agreement between the two countries.
1. Department of State (U.S.A.), The Geographer, International Boundary Study,
Series A. Limits in the Seas. No. 25, Continental Shelf Boundary: Iran-Qatar
(1970), p. 2.
2. Ibid. And see Appendix No. 18.
3. See Appendix No. 19.