Iran - Israel/US War: Israel-US declare war on Iran, Iran responds

[Persian Gulf]

1971 Abu Musa Sharjah Iran MOU

A point that often gets lost in the Abu Musa debate is that you do not actually need to resolve the sovereignty question to understand why the UAE has a serious grievance with Iran.

In 1971, Sharjah and Iran reached a very specific arrangement over Abu Musa. Neither side gave up its sovereignty claim. Instead, they agreed to divide practical jurisdiction: Iranian troops could occupy a clearly defined area, and Iran would have full jurisdiction there. Sharjah would retain full jurisdiction over the remainder of the island, with its police, administration and civilian population continuing under Sharjah's authority.

That is important because Iran's initial arrival on Abu Musa was therefore not simply an unrestricted annexation. Iranian forces entered a pre-determined portion of the island while the remainder remained under Sharjah's civil administration.

The UAE's grievance is that Iran later appears to have gone well beyond those agreed limits.

The clearest turning point was 1992. Iranian authorities began preventing some non-UAE nationals employed by the UAE from entering the Sharjah-administered area and imposed passport/visa requirements, effectively treating access to the whole island as entry into Iranian territory.

That cuts directly across the central bargain of the MOU: Iranian jurisdiction in the agreed Iranian area; Sharjah jurisdiction over the rest.

The UAE subsequently protested further Iranian activities and infrastructure, including an airfield and other facilities, as part of a broader expansion of Iranian administration beyond the territory allocated to it under the 1971 arrangement.

There is an important nuance here. Iran issued a separate statement in 1971 reserving the right to take measures it considered necessary for the security of the island.

But that reservation was not itself part of the mutually agreed MOU. It was an Iranian unilateral declaration. Sharjah did not amend the MOU to say that Iran could exercise unrestricted security or governmental jurisdiction over the entire island.

That distinction matters.

A unilateral statement by one party cannot simply rewrite the agreed text, particularly when the agreed text expressly says that Sharjah retains full jurisdiction over the remainder of Abu Musa.

So even if Iran believed it had wider security rights, that is different from saying Sharjah contractually accepted those rights.

The grievance can therefore be stated without taking any position on ultimate sovereignty:

Sharjah allowed Iran onto Abu Musa under an agreement that expressly limited Iranian jurisdiction to a designated part of the island. Iran subsequently began exercising governmental control beyond that area and increasingly treated the entire island as Iranian territory.

That creates an obvious tension in Iran's position. If Iran relies on the 1971 arrangement to argue that its original military presence on Abu Musa was consensual, then the same agreement also contains the limitation on where Iranian jurisdiction was supposed to apply.

In other words, the UAE case is not merely:

"We say Abu Musa belongs to us."

There is a separate and arguably cleaner complaint:

"Whatever the final sovereignty question, Iran agreed in 1971 to a defined division of jurisdiction and subsequently stopped respecting it."

The sovereignty dispute can remain unresolved while that grievance remains perfectly coherent.

This is not the thread for this nonsense, all I’ll say is those islands belonged to Iran for thousands of years before the fake UAE state was created and that will never change

 

[Master Chief]

India doesn’t host American bases used to attack us. They are not spending hundreds of billions of dollars to brainwash the entire region to become takfiri terrorists for the sake of Israel. They haven’t enabled US and the Zionist entity to strangle the region by keeping the petrodollar afloat. India suck, just like most countries in the region. But they are currently not a big threat

Fair points. But Pezeshkian being dalitised on camera isn't a good look.

 

[Persian Gulf]

Fair points. But Pezeshkian being dalitised on camera isn't a good look.

We do not care about India in the same way that you do, they are not in our region and just another outside state that is sometimes good and sometimes bad (these days mostly bad)

Everyone (yes even the beloved Turkey and Saudi) has relations with them and hugs them, you have to get over it and stop complaining only when Iran does it

 

[FIsa]

This is not the thread for this nonsense, all I’ll say is those islands belonged to Iran for thousands of years before the fake UAE state was created and that will never change

You clearly didnt even read it the point is not about who owns the Island the point is not keeping your own promises.

Its relevant because how do you convince GCC to agree to a new Strait MOU when Iran broke the 1971 MOU ?

From GCC position, ok lets agree Iran to have SOH .. but guess what Abu Musa MOU tells us is that Iran will come back for more till we do not exist.

UAE is not a fake state either

 

[Persian Gulf]

You clearly didnt even read it the point is not about who owns the Island the point is not keeping your own promises.

Its relevant because how do you convince GCC to agree to a new Strait MOU when Iran broke the 1971 MOU ?

From GCC position, ok lets agree Iran to have SOH .. but guess what Abu Musa MOU tells us is that Iran will come back for more till we do not exist.

UAE is not a fake state either

UAE is not a fake state? Created in 1971 with population of 95% foreigners? It’s a hub for money laundering and prostitution, nothing else

 

[Persian Gulf]

Stay on topic

 

[PakAl]

Pakistan is best friends with Saudi Arabia and India is friends with Israel

but geopolitics is complicated and we must balance relations with everyone to secure the best outcome for Iran

Nations have no permanent friends or allies, they only have permanent interests."

Iran needs to play high level politics in order to survive in this world, noone is your permanent ally or permanent enemy, Iran cannot have enemies surrounded it, they must find ways to improve relations with GCC, world superpowers (mostly give), get rid of the sanctions, improve trade and rise as a regional economic and military power.

Regarding Pakistan being best friend with Saudi Arabia, I oppose it but we have no choice, the Saudis are number 1 Muslim ally of the Usa, they are part of the Usa led world order, so you can imagine the amount of influence and power they possess.

 

[Persian Gulf]

Nations have no permanent friends or allies, they only have permanent interests."

Iran needs to play high level politics in order to survive in this world, noone is your permanent ally or permanent enemy, Iran cannot have enemies surrounded it, they must find ways to improve relations with GCC, world superpowers (mostly give), get rid of the sanctions, improve trade and rise as a regional economic and military power.

Regarding Pakistan being best friend with Saudi Arabia, I oppose it but we have no choice, the Saudis are number 1 Muslim ally of the Usa, they are part of the Usa led world order, so you can imagine the amount of influence and power they possess.

We are in an imposed war and our neighbours help our enemy attack us

It’s difficult to get out of this until our neighbours realise it is not good to enable external actors to attack their permanent neighbour

The Iranian perspective is that we attack enemy bases in those countries but not those countries and we still want to have good relations with them

 

[r3alist]

We are in an imposed war and our neighbours help our enemy attack us

It’s difficult to get out of this until our neighbours realise it is not good to enable external actors to attack their permanent neighbour

The Iranian perspective is that we attack enemy bases in those countries but not those countries and we still want to have good relations with them

You attacked global oil supplies and routes causing EVERYONE pain for a prolonged period

By the logic of self interest....

And no longer attacking Israel

 

[Persian Gulf]

You attacked global oil supplies and routes causing EVERYONE pain for a prolonged period

This is correct

That is our best tool to cause pressure to end the war

We always said if Iran cannot export oil, no one can

Though it is strange you have more anger at Iran than those who started the war by killing thousands of Iranian civilians

 

[r3alist]

This is correct

That is our best tool to cause pressure to end the war

We always said if Iran cannot export oil, no one can

Though it is strange you have more anger at Iran than those who started the war by killing thousands of Iranian civilians

You had all the support you could have hoped for and you want more, question loyalty, whilst answering everything with....."hey that's geopolitics" ....

Whilst others have to shoulder the fall out?

 

[Persian Gulf]

You had all the support you could have hoped for and you want more, question loyalty, whilst answering everything with....."hey that's geopolitics" ....

Whilst others have to shoulder the fall out?

If you mean all our Arab neighbours hosting enemy bases used to attack us, then yes, we had all the support we could have hoped for

Do you have any war updates or just here to complain and criticise Iran?

 

[Persian Gulf]

There is a concerted sectarian and American led effort to portray Iran as joining an alliance with India and / or the UAE. This is the narrative the U.S. state department has decided should be fed to Sunni populations in the region. It won’t be tolerated in this thread.

One example of the fake news:

 

[Persian Gulf]

Israeli finance minister openly declares that Israel’s goal is to starve Iranian civilians so they have “nothing to eat and nothing to drink”

Unfortunately, we have failed to establish deterrence. But Israel has a small number of power plants and water desalination plants and plans should be in place to destroy all of them if necessary.

 

[r3alist]

If you mean all our Arab neighbours hosting enemy bases used to attack us, then yes, we had all the support we could have hoped for

Do you have any war updates or just here to complain and criticise Iran?

I sense you might be on the cusp of banning me or something because I pointed out that continual oil disruption causes pain for all and that is not a given to expect quiet agreement to this, because Pakistan did not attack Iran but Iran did attack Pakistan.... Anyway I'll leave it there