ABSTRACT
The announcement of the British withdrawal from ‘east of Suez’ on 16 January 1968 set in motion a series of activities that prepared the Persian Gulf for a historic change. This chapter discusses the end of the Pax Britannica in the Persian Gulf, which enabled Iran to actively pursue and resolve the dispute over the three islands and to reinstate its own supremacy in the region. It focuses on Britain’s policy reversal and its main consequences, or specifically, the expedient abandonment of Britain’s claim of the three islands of Abu Musa, Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb for its Arab proteges, and the emergence of Arab radicals as the new main pretenders to the islands, rejecting their appurtenance to Iran. The British Conservative Party, while in opposition, sharply criticized the decision made by the Labour government. In their view withdrawal amounted to dishonouring obligations to friends and allies in the Persian Gulf and would endanger stability in the area.
