Reaction to Gulf move

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32779, 2 December 1971, Page 15

Reaction to Gulf move

(N.Z. Press Assn. —Copyright; TEHERAN, Dec. 1. When an Iranian marine force occupied three tiny islands at the mouth of the Persian Gulf yesterday, seven persons were killed in a brief clash with a police garrison on one of them, Greater Tunbs.

The take-over sent British Embassy officials in Teheran into hurried consultations with Iranian leaders, because Great Tunbs and its sister island, Lesser Tunbs, are British protectorates. The third island, Abu Musa was occupied under an agreement with its ruler, the Sheikh of Sharjah. Under the Iran-Sharjah agreement, oil revenues will be shared and Iran will give Sharjah £l.sm a year until the State’s yearly revenue from oil reaches £3m. But Ras Al Khaimah and British authorities were adamant today that there was no such agreement with Iran allowing her troops to land on the two Tunbs.

Iraq has already called for Britain's withdrawal from the Persian Gulf, which she has policed since imperial warships secured the vital trade route 150 years ago. Egypt, too, regards British withdrawal as a prerequisite for future security arrangements in the area. The Iranian authorities say that their island- landings took place with formal British agreement, but in London, the Foreign Office

placed an embargo on all official comment on the incident.

Privately, British sources insist that Iran acted on her own.

London radio monitors say that Radio Bagdad reported last night that Iraq had broken off diplomatic relations with Britain and Iran because of the Iranian “invasion.”

The strangely-named islands, although specks on the map, are strategically important; they command the entrance of the Persian Gulf in the 60-mile-wide Strait of Hormuz, through which half of the world’s oil supply passes. Iraq's action angered Iraq which described the occupation as “overt aggression on Arab sovereignty,” and urged joint retaliation by Arab countries. Iraq has long been pressing for an Arab regional defence system to fill the military vacuum when Britain leaves the Persian Gulf area at the end of the year, but, because of inter-Arab rivalries and Iran’s military strength, no steps have been taken toward such a system. In Damascus, a Syrian Government spokesman said that Iran’s occupation of the three islands was “an overt challenge to the will of the Arab people and world public opinion, and a disregard for the right of the people of the three islands to sovereignty and self-determination.” In Kuwait, the National Assembly denounced the Iranian action and called on the Government to sever diplomatic relations with Britain, the United States and Iran. Radio Bagdad reported to-

day that Iraq had severed diplomatic relations with Britain. The island of Lesser Tunbs is uninhabited, but a small police garrison was patrolling Greater Tunbs at the time of the occupation. About 200 people live there. An Iranian report said the Greater Tunbs police had not been informed of the occupation, and opened fire. Three Iranian marines were killed and one was wounded. The Iranian force returned the fire, killing four policemen and wounding five others.

There have been conflicting reports about the reaction of Sheikh Saqr of nearby Ras Al Khaimah, who has controlled the Tunbs Islands and whose territory Britain is treaty-bound to defend. The Sheikh, according to reports from the area, was shocked and angry. In a protest to London, he was said to have sought to invoke the pact that binds Britain to help him against external attack.

But British sources say that he did no more than express his concern. Britain’s treaty with Ras Al Khaimah ends today, and, the sources say, she could not be expected to exercise her responsibilities one day before such a pact expired. The Foreign Office said only: “Naturally we regret deeply the loss Of life that has occurred.” Kuwait has denounced the Iranian occupation of the islands, declaring that they were Arab lands “historically and ethnically.”

Egypt, however, welcomed the take-over of the islands as “a peaceful solution of the problem.”