Last month, Tehran announced it was building maritime offices on the Persian Gulf island of Abu Musa, reigniting the long-standing territorial dispute between Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Since 1970, the disagreement over the island and the neighboring Greater and Lesser Tunbs has been mired in legal uncertainty and historical claims and counterclaims, hindering diplomatic relations between Iran and the Gulf Arab states. The recent diplomatic intensity surrounding the issue, however, including the UAE's August 21 formal protest to UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon, is a significant break from the past, and may be a forerunner to a future escalation. Considering the importance of the islands--all three are strategically located near the Strait of Hormuz, where 20 percent of the world's oil passes daily--the dispute's outcome is deeply tied to the interests of the United States and the international community. On September 2, the foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)--Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, and the UAE--issued a statement condemning Iran's actions and demanding that it remove its "illegal installations and respect the [UAE's] sovereignty." On September 3, a spokesman from Iran's foreign ministry complained that the GCC statement interfered "in Iran's internal affairs," and went on to say that "all [Iran's] measures on Abu Musa are completely legal and in accordance with Iran's rights of governing this Iranian island." He urged the Gulf Arab states to be "realistic." Two weeks earlier, GCC secretary-general Abdulrahman al-Attiyah compared Iran's presence on the islands to Israel's occupation of Arab lands, telling a pan-Arab newspaper, "It is not permissible for states to occupy the territory of others." In May, the UAE protested against Iran's dismissal of the dispute as a "misunderstanding," and an Emirati official compared Iran's behavior with that of Israel.
