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The Shatt Al-Arab: Obstacle to Iran-Iraq Peace
The dispute over the Shatt Al-Arab waterway threatens once more to derail the peace talks between Iraq and Iran, and could ultimately end the truce between the two countries. However, as this historical account shows, the controversy involving this shallow, 127-mile-long strategic waterway has been the subject of treaties signed in 1843, 1937, and 1975, and continues to loom as an intractable problem.
The Shatt Al-Arab is composed of a small section of the confluence of the Iraqi Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which are also joined by the Karun river flowing from Iran. This zone of the Iran-Iraq frontier is of great economic and strategic significance to both countries. Although two of Iran's main oil terminals and cargo ports, Abadan and Khorramshahr, are situated on this waterway, the Shatt constitutes Iraq's only maritime outlet to the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea.
According to an 1843 agreement between the Ottoman and Persian governments, the Ottoman waters of the Shatt Al-Arab extended to the eastern bank of the river estuary, with the exception of the mouth of the Karun River and two islands which remained in Persian hands. Thus, in effect, Turkey controlled all the waters up to the east bank of the Shatt, but recognized Persian sovereignty over the ports of Abadan and Khorramshahr.
Beginning in 1914, a new element-oil-entered the picture, and after World War I, the Ottoman-controlled area west of the Shatt was transferred to Iraq. Both the search for oil and subsequent oil exploration involved the use of transportation on the Shatt and the...