Heikal: Witnessing 1970 Agreement on Bahrain and Three Islands

Bahrain Demands Proof

Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Shaikh Khalid has denied allegation by a prominent Arab journalist that Arab-Iranian negotiators had reached an agreement in 1970 for Iran’s recognition of Bahrain as an independent Arab state in exchange for the three Persian Gulf islands of Abu Musa, the Greater Tunb, and the Lesser Tunb. Shaikh Khalid demanded proof from the journalist, even though he was an eyewitness to the agreement.

Hassanein Heikal, the 90-year old respected former editor of AL Ahram, said in an interview last week that he personally attended the Arab-Iranian negotiations over the future of some of the Gulf states as they prepared to announce their independence in the early 1970s. Heikal added that the Arabs accepted a deal with the Shah of Iran to keep Bahrain as an Arab state in exchange for the three islands. (Gulf News, 12 January)

Haykal’s statement as an eyewitness to the deal contradicts UAE’s claim that the islands are part of its territories, and confirms Iran’s contention that the Shah had agreed to drop Iran’s historic claim over Bahrain in exchange for ownership of the three islands. Iranian military occupied the islands shortly before the formal departure of the British from the Persian Gulf in 1971 and the creation of independent states of Bahrain and the UAE.

File photo: Mohamed Hassanein Heikal (Wikipedia)