Page 164 - The Origins of the United Arab Emirates_Neat

130 7 he Origins of the IJni led Arab Emir ales

lhat it would speed up negotiations) to consider leasing Tunb to
Iran; but when, a short time later, he acted on his own to reach
some sort of agreement with the Iranians, he was severely repri­
manded, particularly since British interests would have suffered had
he been successful. At no point did the recommendations of the
local British officials that the rulers, of whose problems they were
aware, be given more positive help make enough of an impression
on London to change the course of events.
When it was favourable to British interests to uphold territorial
claims, or to resist them, British officials expended every effort
to ensure the desired end. In the ease of Bahrain, another group
of islands to which Riza Shah laid claim, the Iranian interest
was made particularly ominous by the large Persian and Shi‘ah
communities residing there. These communities could be, and often
were, mobilised to weaken the rule of the Al-Khalifah. But Bahrain
was central to British interests in the Gulf: even before oil was
struck there, it had been considered as the most likely place to
succeed Bushire as the British headquarters in the Gulf. Therefore
the British Government continually sought to ensure Bahrain's inde­
pendence, and in 1970 Iran formally renounced its claim. The
contrast with the claim to the Tunbs and Abu Musa is strong,
for in 1971 all three islands passed under Iranian rule.
Relations between Iran and the Trucial Coast remained unfriendly,
despite the large number of Persians residing on the Coast. Iranian
hostility was expressed not only through interference with Arab
dhows, in attempts forcibly to halt smuggling, and through constant
claims to sovereignty over Abu Musa and Tunb, but also in a
refusal to accept British passport arrangements. After 1927, as a
result of the Iranian claim to Bahrain, the Iranian Government
declined to affix to British passports bearing endorsements for Bahrain
and Kuwait, or to passports carrying British visa* for travel to
these places, visas for travel to Iran. In 1934 the British authorities
met the difficulty by allowing a second passport, valid only for
journeys to Bahrain and Kuwait, to be issued to people who wished
to visit these shaykhdoms and Iran as well. In the middle of
J937 this provision was extended to cover Muscat and the Trucial
Coast, straining relations with Iran even further. There was obviously
little love lost on either side, the Iranians and the Arabs of the
Coast being mutually antagonistic.
The extension of Saudi interests on the Trucial Coast raised
far more complex problems than any of the Iranian claims, for
it involved wide stretches of land, ownership of which was always
difficult to determine. The main areas of Saudi interest after the
turbulence of 1925 were the Dafrah and Buraimi regions, although
the Saudis made no formal claims to possession in the Western