The Three Islands: A Right That Does Not Lapse with Time

A right does not grow old, and whoever thought that the passing of years changes the facts has miscalculated. Land that knows its people goes on knowing them, however long the absence.

Abu Musa, Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb are not a file in the archive of disputes. They are part of the land of the UAE, and a cause with men behind it who defend it through law, diplomacy and firmness of position, generation after generation.

The roots of the right

Historical documents in circulation, including British archive documents relied on by Emirati researchers, indicate that the three islands belonged to the Qawasim of Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah since before 1750: Abu Musa under Sharjah, and Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb under Ras Al Khaimah. The Qatar Digital Library holds a file of British correspondence from 1871 to 1900 dealing with the Ruler of Ras Al Khaimah's claim to ownership of these islands. Emirati researchers have stated that in 1957 Britain asked the Ruler of Ras Al Khaimah to raise his flag over the government buildings on the two Tunbs, and that in 1961 it protested the landing of an Iranian aircraft on Greater Tunb. The UAE affirms that the maps Iran cites do not create a right of sovereignty.

In fairness, Iran holds a contrary position and says they are Iranian islands. But the UAE's position is firm and clear, and it does not change because a claim is repeated.

November 1971: two days before the union

On 30 November 1971, before the British treaties expired, Iranian forces landed on the three islands. The establishment of the UAE was declared on 2 December, two days later.

On Abu Musa, the landing was preceded by a memorandum of understanding signed through British mediation between Sharjah and Iran. The memorandum stated explicitly that neither party gave up its claim to the island or recognised the claim of the other, and the Sharjah police kept their post and their flag in the part that Sharjah retained. This is a memorandum of temporary arrangement, not a surrender of sovereignty. The late Sheikh Khalid bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, then Ruler of Sharjah, said he had spent about two years gathering the documents that prove the island's Arab identity and its belonging to Sharjah, and that the logic of force and threats left no room for legitimate evidence, according to what a research paper reported him as saying.

As for the two Tunbs, no agreement preceded the landing, so Iranian forces landed on them by force, and a number of Ras Al Khaimah policemen fell on Greater Tunb while doing their duty. Months after the union, Ras Al Khaimah joined on 10 February 1972 after assurances that the federal government would continue to claim the two Tunbs. That pledge has not been forgotten, and it is still kept.

Men who carry the cause

We do not hold on to this right because it is a cherished memory, but because it has men who stand for it. Men in the diplomatic field who raise their voices in international forums, men of law and history who gather the documents and prepare the files, and a leadership that neither concedes nor rushes.

It is no secret that, for us, a right does not lapse with time and is not forgotten with the passing of the years. The founding generation raised the banner, the generations after them carried it, and today it is in the hands of the sons of the UAE, under the leadership of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the State, may God protect him.

One position from the start

The UAE's official position has not changed: a peaceful solution through direct negotiations or recourse to the International Court of Justice. His Excellency Khalifa Shaheen Almarar, Minister of State, affirmed before the United Nations General Assembly on 28 September 2026 that the UAE consistently calls for a peaceful settlement of this dispute, whether through direct negotiations or by recourse to the International Court of Justice. And on 14 October 2026, before the Fourth Committee, the UAE affirmed its full sovereignty over the islands, and that any decisions or practices Iran undertakes there are “null and void, and change nothing of the historical and legal facts”.

Nor is this position the UAE's alone. The Supreme Council of the Gulf Cooperation Council, at the 46th summit in Bahrain in December 2025, renewed its support for the UAE's sovereign right over the islands, their waters and their airspace, and called on Iran to respond to direct negotiations or international adjudication. The Arab League renewed its “absolute” support for the UAE's sovereignty at its 164th session in September 2025, and Arab foreign ministers discussed the issue at their 166th session in September 2026. The African Union also affirmed, in a joint statement with the UAE in January 2026, its support for a peaceful solution in accordance with international law.

The price of neglect

And if we take a step back, we ask: how did the occupation of three Arab islands, two days before the founding of a state, pass while the world looked on? That day the world ignored the three islands, turned a blind eye to Iran, and reckoned that silence buys calm. But silence over the first transgression brings nothing but a second. What was passed over in silence in 1971 became an approach through which Iran expands in the region, and today the whole world is paying the price of that neglect in its security and stability. Did anyone really need all these years to understand that a right lost in one place emboldens the aggressor in every place?

Conclusion

The path the UAE has chosen is clear: no escalation and no complacency. Quiet diplomacy, international law, and the patience of rights-holders who are sure of their right. Real strength is not in a raised voice, but in a steadfast position.

And Abu Musa, Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb will remain Emirati, in spite of anyone who objects to these words