Supplemental https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Seizure_of_Abu_Musa_and_the_Greater_and_Lesser_Tunbs
In the decades following the takeover, the issue remained a source of friction between the UAE and Iran. Negotiations between the UAE and Iran in 1992 failed. The UAE attempted to bring the dispute before the International Court of Justice,[20] but Iran refused. Iran says the islands always belonged to it as it had never renounced possession of the islands, and that they are part of Iranian territory.[21] The UAE argues that the islands were under the control of Qasimi sheikhs throughout the 19th century, whose rights were then inherited by the UAE in 1971. Iran counters by stating that the local Qasimi rulers during a relevant part of the 19th century were actually based on the Iranian, not the Arab, coast, and had thus become Persian subjects.[22]
In 1980, the UAE took its claim to the United Nations,[23] but the claim was deferred by the UN Security Council at that time and it was not revisited.[1][5] According to author Thomas Mattair, executive director of Middle East Policy Council (MEPC), given that Iran has consistently refused to consider mediation or arbitration from third-party groups such as the ICJ, Mattair considers the invasion a violation of Article 33 of the United Nations Charter.[24] Iran has continues to reject all claims to the islands, describing them as an inseparable part of Iranian territory.
Intransigent, intractable Iran, in a world of diplomacy, which intransigence is fitting in many cases, but when the owner is a mafia....