Page 104 - The Origins of the United Arab Emirates_Neat

Bo The Origins of the United A rah Emirates

resentment of the privileged position that Britain hac! held in the
south of the country; one of the first acts of the new government,
which rejected the Anglo-Persian Treaty of 1919, was to expel
British advisers and deliberately to court American companies with
offers of oil concessions. The Foreign Office in London was generally
not averse to the existence of a strong Iranian government, but
the Government of India refused to accept the situation, arguing
that the new government was not stable.16 This conflict was mani­
fested in the Gulf region between the wars: the Government of
India regarded any Iranian claim as an infringement of the rights
of the Arabs and, consequently, of the integrity and power of
the Government of India, while the Foreign Office tended to consider
the matter with less firmness and more flexibility, depending on
the issue at stake.
During this period, the Iranian Government, in continuation of
its policy on the mainland, was much preoccupied with claiming
sovereignty over the islands in the Gulf. The British Government
was strongly opposed to any extension of Iranian power in a British
sphere of influence, especially as the Arab side of the Gulf was
becoming increasingly important; it consistently sought, therefore,
to uphold Arab ownership of the islands of the Tunbs,17 Abu Musa,18
Sirri19 and Bahrain.20 With the exception of Bahrain, these islands
shared a common history and status. They were claimed by the
Qasimi rulers of Sharjah, a branch of which had established itself
at Lingah on the Persian coast in the middle of the eighteenth
century; they were also claimed by Persia, on the basis that the
Qawasim had governed Lingah as Persian officials. The Arab claim
was upheld by the British Government in the face of Persia’s many
attempts to assert its sovereignty over the islands. In 1887 the
Persian flag was hoisted on Sirri. Although the British Government
objected to the occupation of the island, it decided to acquiesce
quietly and uphold the Arab claim to Abu Musa and the Tunbs,
despite the fact that the Qawasim never dropped their claim to
Sirri. In 1904, Persian customs officials forcibly removed the Arab
flags from Abu Musa and the Tunbs, hoisted the Persian flag,
and placed guards on the islands. The ruler of Sharjah appealed
for help to the British Government, which in turn contemplated
despatching a gunboat to deal with the situation if warnings to
Persia w'ent unheeded. A few weeks later, the Persian Government
ordered the removal of the flags and guards from the islands,
but made it clear that it still laid claim to them.21 In 1913 the
Government of India had a lighthouse erected on Tunb. After
1921, when Ras al-Khaimah became independent of Sharjah, Sultan
bin Salim claimed the Tunb islands. The exact date on which
the ownership of them changed hands is not clear, but in 1929