[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Might be some clues in this:

Walls riddled with bullet holes and bombed out buildings line the streets of Khorramshahr, Iran. It looks like a war zone, because, well, it was a war zone. Even though the war has been over for twelve years, this town has not been fully rebuilt or cleaned up. Along the Karun River, which divides the town in half, old, rusty shells of boats line the shore, and masts of sunken ships rise up from the water. A large bridge touches both shores, but is missing the middle section, the part that runs over the water.

The heat is oppressive, even though it's only April, which adds to the sense of hopelessness that this part of the city conveys. "This used to be a beautiful town," Hady tells us, as we survey the destruction before us. We drive near the mouth of the Karun River, where it lets out into the Arvand River, which leads to the sea.

"There." Hady points out across the Arvand in the distance. "That is Iraq."

_____________snip

"Saddam called the Karun River the Shatt-al-Arab, the 'Arab River,' in order to raise the support of the other Arab nations."

Reference from :

here

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

And a photo of the area:

____________________________________________________

Karun River Delta, Iran   June 1996 – The Karun River, along with Tigris and Euphrates Rivers immediately west of this area, has formed a broad deltaic plain at the northern end of the Persian (Arabian) Gulf.  This section of coastal plain is located in the southwest corner of Iran and includes sandy beaches, inter-tidal flats, and small estuaries.  Large quantities of sand and silt are deposited at the mouths of the distributary channels (darker, meandering features upper half of the image) of the Karun River.  Except for the deeper channels (darker blues), the coastal waters appear to be shallow with extensive sandbars (tan-looking features) and a few islands.  The darker water inlet (near bottom center) displays an intricate drainage pattern.  The Iranian port city of Bandar-e Pahlavi is situated along the northern edge of this inland harbor.  The straight, linear features (lower right corner) are highway and pipeline right of ways.