December 1, 2023
The Pasdaran are trying to induce more Iranians to move to the disputed islands in the Persian Gulf in an effort to strengthen Iran’s claims to the three islands of Abu Musa, Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb.
Abu Musa was populated by about 800 Arabs when it was seized by Iran in 1971, and the Greater Tunb had about 200. The Lesser Tunb has never had a resident population. It is essentially a giant rock, and has been described over the decades as “more a navigational hazard than an island.”
The Islamic Republic has generally made life more difficult for the Arabs on Abu Musa to encourage them to move off. Now it is actively trying to get Iranians to move onto the island.
During an interview with the state broadcaster September 25, Admiral Alireza Tangsiri, commander of the Pasdar maritime arm, announced the construction of some 900 residential units on the islands.
This is in line with the Islamic Republic’s policy to encourage people to live on the islands, where living conditions are rather primitive. The government has also announced it is mulling a plan to give free plots of land measuring 300 square meters (3,230 square feet) to anyone who commits to living there. It will also offer loans to build a home, as part of a national homeownership scheme, in a bid to incentivize Iranians to populate the contested area.
The government listed Lesser Tunb as a target for new residents, but it wasn’t clear if that was serious. (The island is overrun with poisonous snakes.)
Iran and the Arabs each say that history is on their side. In a research paper written by the CIA in 1980 but not publicly released for a third of a century, the CIA staff said, “All claims to the islands are tenuous, although history seems to give the Arabs the stronger case.”
The three islands fell under British control in 1921 but on November 30, 1971, a day after British forces left the region and just two days before the UAE was to become an independent country, Mohammad Reza Shah sent the Iranian navy to secure all three islands.
That was part of a secret deal with the British under which both Iran and the UAE would claim sovereignty while the Iranian Army would have troops on Abu Musa and the UAE would run the police. But the Islamic Republic later booted the police off the island and has heavily militarized the place.
Admiral Tangsiri said Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi has personally ordered efforts to increase the islands’ population “as a means to increase their security. We believe that we should settle people on these islands so that our friends do not fear that we want to establish a military base against them,” he said, referring to the Arab countries of the region.
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)—a regional organization bringing together the six Arab countries of Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Saudi Arabia—repeatedly expresses support for “the right of the State of the UAE to regain sovereignty over her three islands and over the territorial waters, the airspace, the continental shelf, and the economic zone of the three islands, as they are an integral part of the State of the United Arab Emirates.”