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Coll 17/15(1) 'Perso-Iraq Relations: Persia-Iraq frontier; Persia's claim in the Shatt-el-Arab' [‎149v] (309/961)

The record is made up of 1 volume (476 folios). It was created in 1 May 1933-15 Mar 1935. It was written in English and French. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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away to the east of the Shatt-el-Arab, Persia possesses a deep-water harbour
penetrating far into Persian territory, where sne has already constructed the
terminus of the Trans-Persian Railway. Iraq is essentially the land of the two
rivers. Euphrates and Tigris. The Shatt-el-Arab, formed by their junction,
constitutes Iraq’s only access to the sea; it requires constant attention if it is to
be kept fit for navigation by modern shipping, and Basra, 100 kilom. from the I
mouth, is Iraq’s only port. It is highly undesirable, from Iraq’s point of view,
that another Power should command this channel from one bank. Iraq is not I
asking that the frontier should be altered, but I make these remarks to show that
it is not because the existing line is unduly to its advantage.
The difficulties that have arisen with the Persian Government are described
in Appendix III of my Government’s request to the Council. As there indicated,
they fall under four heads. In the first place, Persian officials have been
interfering with, and Persian war vessels impeding, navigation on the Shatt-el-
Arab. The maritime sector of the river is under the control of the Directorate
of the Port of Basra, which makes and enforces navigation regulations and
carries out the dredging operations which are necessary to keep the channel open.
The Persian war vessels deliberately disregard these regulations, thereby
endangering shipping on the river. Persian customs officials have extended their
activities to places outside Persian territory; Persian armed ratings have been
sent up and down the river on patrol duty.
A second category of incidents is in connexion with police posts. The
Persian Government have been establishing police posts and patrols at various
points on the Iraq side of the boundary, and, except in two cases, the endeavours
of my Government to have them removed have been unavailing. A third head of
dispute relates to the ownership of a small strip of territory called Sarkoshk;
and the fourth arises out of the damming by the Persian authorities, of the
Gun]am Cham River, the median line of which constitutes part of the boundary.
This is merely a cursory summary of the kind of difficulty which has been
going on over a period of years. My Government have made every effort to bring
these incidents to an end by friendly representations, but every step in this
direction has been met by the Persian Government with a denial that the areas
where the acts complained of were committed are under Iraqi sovereignty. The
Persian Government decline to recognise the existing boundary as laid down by
the Treaties and Demarcation Commissions without, on their part, explaining
where they suggest the boundary to be. It is obvious that a situation of this
kind cannot be allowed to continue indefinitely, and it is in these circumstances
that my Government have felt bound to invoke Ihe assistance of the Council.
As appears from the request, the Government of Iraq take their stand upon
international agreements concluded in the past, under which the frontier now m
question was determined and fixed. The first of these is the Treaty of Erzerum
between Persia and Turkey signed on the 31st May, 1847, and ratified by those
Powers on the 21st March, 1848. In the understanding of my Government,
articles 2 and 3 of this treaty (see request, Appendix I) laid down the whole of the
frontier between Turkey and Persia, including that part which now forms the
boundary between Persia and Iraq. This view is by no means new, but was the
one repeatedly expressed in the course of past diplomatic negotiations. Moreover,
in the submission of my Government, the third paragraph of article 2 of the same
treaty itself provides,^implicitly at any rate, for the left bank of the Shatt-el-
Arab, and not the thalweg, being the frontier of Persia in the southern sector,
say this now because the Persian Government, in their reply (II, p- I) COI1 ^ e / 1 .
that it was in the Protocol of Constantinople of 1913 that for the first time tins
arrangement was forced upon Persia. That this is not the case is shown not only
by the terms of article 2 of the Treaty of Erzerum, but also by the fact that e
very first Delimitation Commission set up under the treaty, which went out m
1850, proposed the same boundary line, and this was accepted by the Persian
Prime Minister on the 25th Mav of that year. As a matter of history it isoniyi
the decade immediately preceding the Treaty of Erzerum that a wave of Persia
expansion and the internecine strife of the independent Arab Amirate o
Chab, of which the Ottoman Government claimed suzerainty, brought a sm
Persian garrison to Muhammara, the minor Arab port on the Karun river near
confluence with the Shatt-el-Arab. The Persian possession of the left banK
really in the nature of an anomaly which was first validated by the Trea y

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Content

The volume contains papers regarding relations between Persia [Iran] and Iraq. It primarily concerns the frontier delineated by the 1913-1914 Boundary Commission, in particular Persian claims over areas of the Shatt el-Arab, and rights to oilfields in the Naft Khana [Naft Khāna] or Khaniqin [Khāniqīn]area. The papers document renewed negotiations over the border, and include discussion of the following topics: Iraqi concerns over Persian military activities conducted in Iraq; Persia's refusal to recognise the validity of the 1914 Frontier Delimitation Protocol; attempts to redraw the frontier at the Shatt el-Arab along the thalweg [valley way], as opposed to the medium filum aquae ; proposals to revive the Shatt el-Arab Conservancy Board Scheme; and proposals for an agreement to regulate the exploitation of the oilfields in the transferred territories on the frontier near Khanqin, including the proposed creation of a special zone. These papers primarily consist of correspondence between the following: HM Ambassadors at Baghdad, Teheran and Italy; the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Political Department; the Foreign Office (principally Sir John Simon, and J C Sterndale-Bennet); the Iraqi Minister for Foreign Affairs; and the Persian Minister for Foreign Affairs.

In 1935 the Iraqi Government formally raised the question of the frontier with the Council of the League of Nations, and sought a Court ruling as to the validity of the 1914 Boundary Protocol. The Italian delegate to the League (Baron Pompeo Aloisi) was designated Rapporteur to the negotiations, and the volume contains correspondence between the Foreign Office and HM Ambassador in Rome, regarding a proposed Italo-Iraqi Treaty of Friendship, proposals regarding the frontier made by Aloisi, and general Italian influence over Iran and Iraq. The volume also includes copies of memoranda and minutes circulated by the League, in addition to correspondence regarding the negotiations in Geneva and Italy, and documents from the Committee of Imperial Defence Standing Official Sub-Committee for Questions Concerning the Middle East.

The volume includes a divider giving a list of correspondence references found in the volume by year. This is placed at the end of the correspondence (folio 1).

Extent and format
1 volume (476 folios)
Arrangement

The papers are arranged in rough chronological order from the rear to the front of the volume.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence for this description commences at the first folio with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 472; these numbers are written in pencil and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. The front and back covers, along with the two leading and two ending flyleaves, have not been foliated.

Written in
English and French in Latin script
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Coll 17/15(1) 'Perso-Iraq Relations: Persia-Iraq frontier; Persia's claim in the Shatt-el-Arab' [‎149v] (309/961), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/12/2869, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100074341458.0x00006e> [accessed 28 March 2024]

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