Territorial Disputes Threaten Iran-Arab Detente

The uneasy detente between Iran and its Arab neighbors is not only threatened by the state of Iranian-U.S. relations but also by dormant territorial disputes. These include disputes over the Greater and Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa islands claimed by the United Arab Emirates and oil and gas fields that Iran shares with neighboring countries – which Iran has not developed due to the international sanctions regime and restricted access to technology. Should the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its engineering arm, Khatam al-Anbia Construction Headquarters, engage in developing the fields, Iran and its Arab neighbors may find themselves entangled in renewed crises.  

• September 11: Reformist Shargh Daily condemned the final statement from a recent meeting of the Ministerial Council of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf:  
  • “Once again, the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council repeated its baseless claims regarding the three Iranian islands by declaring them a part of the United Arab Emirates and by referring to the council’s previous statements on Iran allegedly occupying the Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb, and Bou-Musa islands … The statement further repeated claims concerning the Arash oil and gas field and asserted: ‘the Dorra field lies entirely within the maritime areas of the State of Kuwait, stating that the ownership of natural resources in the divided submerged area are adjacent to the Saudi-Kuwaiti divided area …’ The Islamic Republic of Iran justly considers any claim on the three islands as intervention in internal Iranian affairs and territorial integrity of Iran and strongly condemns them as such. As for the Arash oil and gas field, from Tehran’s viewpoint, repetitive statements and unilateral claims have no legal value and do not prove the Kuwaiti party’s claims.” 

• September 11: Abd al-Reza Abed, Khatam al-Anbia Construction Headquarters chief, said, as reported by IRGC mouthpiece Javan newspaper: 
  • “Previous Cabinets of the Islamic Republic neglected developing Iran’s shared oil and gas fields.” He continued that under the late President Ebrahim Raisi, “we engaged in an effort … We have shared oil fields with Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, and Oman. In the north, we have shared oil and gas fields with Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan. Ayatollah Raisi made promises, and meetings were held. Khatam al-Anbia Construction Headquarters was the vanguard of this effort, and we demonstrated that we were capable of doing it.”  

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