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5.10 Subsequent developments

While the sovereignty of some islands continue to be disputed, developments are underway to once again restore the economies of the area and in particular the island of Qeshm:

 

Iran has put in force regulations governing the leasing of land to Iranians and foreigners on the Gulf island of Kish, one of three free trade zones on Iran’s southern coast, Resalat newspaper reported It said land would be leased for up to 21 years. Kish is located near the Iranian coast almost due north of Abu Dhabi, and is marked as Qeys on some maps. Iranians can also buy land on Kish but foreigners cannot. The government has declared Kish along with Qeshm island at the Strait of Hormuz and Chahbahar port on the Sea of Oman free zones to attract foreign investment and trade. The government has said it welcomes joint ventures and even wholly owned foreign projects in export industries and other selected fields at Kish. Kish, which has a mild climate and beautiful beaches, was first developed by the late Shah’s government, but plans to turn it into a jet set resort were disrupted by the 1979 Islamic revolution.^[1]

 

Development in the area has continued with a report in April 1994 that work had begun on a project to pipe fresh water to the island of Hormuz:

 

On 16th April work started in Bandar Abbas on a desalination plant that will pipe fresh water through a 21-km pipe to the island of Hormuz in the Hormuz Strait. The managing director of the Hormuzgan regional water authority said on 16th April that ‘thus far as much as 2.2bn rials’ had been budgeted for a feasibility study of the project and to buy polyethylene pipes and plant equipment.^[2]

 

Tension in the area was always high as indicated in the following news article in March 1995:

 

Iran has deployed Hawk anti-aircraft missiles on strategic islands around the Strait of Hormuz, the potential choke point for oil shipments through the Persian Gulf, President Clinton and Gen. John M. Shalikashvili, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Tuesday. U.S. intelligence has also spotted Iran moving artillery into forward positions on the islands, Shalikashvili said. The Hawks, an older system originally sold to Tehran by the United States, could be used by Iran to help cut off traffic bound to or from the 550-mile waterway bordering eight Persian Gulf states. All of that can lead you to lots of conclusions. One of them is that they want to have the capability to interdict the shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz,” Shalikashvili said in a breakfast meeting with reporters. ‘What this is all about bothers us very much.’

 

At a news conference later, Clinton said that Iran’s military moves appear to pose “no undue cause for concern at this moment.” “We’re monitoring them, trying to evaluate exactly everything we need to know about them, but we’re on top of the situation,” he said. But U.S. officials said the moves underscore Iran’s “incremental” military buildup in recent months. The missile launchers were deployed late last fall at about the same time as the American buildup in the Persian Gulf, which took place in response to Iraq’s dispatch of troops toward the Kuwaiti border.

Neither Clinton nor Shalikashvili identified the specific islands, but U.S. officials told The Times that the missiles were deployed on Abu Musa and Tunb, two islands near the mouth of the strait. U.S. analysts initially concluded that Iran did not intend to use the missiles to threaten civilian or military aircraft. “It appeared they were deployed mainly for defensive purposes,” one official said. The Hawk missiles originally were not loaded onto launchers, but the systems were activated for the first time in recent days. “The other day they started putting missiles on their launchers, which they had not done before,” Shalikashvili said. U.S. intelligence learned of the development through aerial reconnaissance, including spy satellites. The surveillance was monitoring neighboring Iraq for troop movements and violations of a U.N. ban on weapons of mass destruction. Iran has long had in its arsenal Silkworm anti-ship missiles purchased from China. And Tehran more recently ordered diesel submarines from Russia. Both systems could be used in the Persian Gulf, military experts said. Since the end of its costly eight-year war with Iraq, Iran has launched a major effort to rearm and rebuild its shattered military. Part of the program includes an allocation of hundreds of millions of dollars to buy arms from Russia. “I think most of the military leaders in that part of the world and in Europe .... are very worried about the trend that we are seeing in Iran,” Shalikashvili said. Yet the Hawk deployment does not represent the kind of missile crisis caused by the former Soviet Union’s deployment of missiles in Cuba in the early 1960s. The United States probably will not have to react to developments so far.” ^[3]

 

The stance taken by Iran threatened access to and throught the Strait of Hormuz:

 

Iran has responded to the diplomatic crisis caused by the court ruling by striking a variety of bellicose postures. As well as dispatching agents throughout Europe, the Iranian authorities held a series of military manoeuvres along the Gulf coast last week to display their ability to threaten the world's main oil supply route.

Since the 1987 "tanker war", when American and British warships protected oil tankers from attack by Iran's Revolutionary Guards in the Gulf, Iran's military chiefs have concentrated their energies on acquiring sophisticated military technology.

That would allow them to control access to the Straits of Hormuz, the West's main oil lifeline. Last week's display of military fire power, which was carried out along the entire length of Iran's Gulf coastline, indicated that the Iranians now have the equipment to pose a serious threat to the region's security, and the West's economic wellbeing.

During the exercises the Iranians demonstrated their new Tondar (thunder) surface-to-air missiles and a new anti-ship weapon. In addition, the Iranians have recently taken delivery of a consignment of the North Korean Nudong surface-to-surface missiles which would enable them to launch attacks against Israel.

Following the exercises, which were code-named "Tariq al-Quds" - the road to Jerusalem - Brigadier-General Rahim Safari, the Revolutionary Guards commander in charge of the forces, boasted that Iran now had the capability to close the Straits of Hormuz, and the West's major oil supply route - if it so desired. ^[4]

 

A year later, on the 2nd August 1996 Iraq invaded Kuwait. The news of this and subsequent events was immediately broadcast by the media and dessiminated world-wide. Not since the Iranian revolution in 1978-9 when the government of the Shah of Iran finally submitted in February 1979 to the Ayatollah Khomeini had so much attention been focused on the middle east and in particular the Arabian Gulf. The Lebanese civil war which had entered its tenth year in 1984 and the protracted war between Iraq and Iran which had started in September 1980 whilst of concern to the western powers, did not command the same level of importance. The simple answer lies in the fact that the middle east held over 65% of the world’s total proved reserves of oil, some 661.6 thousand million barrels at the end of 1991.^[5] During 1991 middle east production accounted for just under 50% of the world’s production and a large proportion of that was exported through the Strait of Hormuz.

The oil crisis and the gulf wars reinforced, politically and economically, the importance of the Strait of Hormuz and its status as a strategic fulcrum in world affairs, a position it has maintained for hundreds if not thousands of years.

In September 1990, one month after Iraq had invaded Kuwait the news agency, Lloyds List, reported a case of piracy in the Persian Gulf:

 

Pirates have attacked a Danish cargoship in the Persian Gulf and stolen papers including Nato advice for the defence of merchant ships in war. The vessel had earlier discharged a British military cargo at Jubail.

It is the first known case of piracy in the Gulf, which until now has been untroubled by the rising trend elsewhere in small-scale attacks on shipping. Copenhagen ship operator Elite Shipping confirmed that pirates boarded its 1,557 tons gross vessel Arktis Sun after dark on Tuesday evening. The ship was in position 25 03’N 53 36’E, about 120 miles west of Dubai.

According to chartering manager Mogens Andersen, the ship’s master was held up at gun point on the bridge and ordered to empty the safe. The only other watchkeeper on deck was an AB posted as lookout for mines on the forecastle. About $ 5,000 in cash and ship’s papers were taken in the raid and the thieves left the ship unchallenged.^[6]