ABSTRACT
Warbah and Bubiyan are two strategically located, low-lying uninhabited islands at the head of the Persian/Arabian Gulf. They lie between Kuwait and Iraq, but are the territory of Kuwait. Kuwait came under British protection in 1899 and in the Anglo-Turkish Agreement of 1913 Kuwaiti ownership of Warbah and Bubiyan islands was recognised. The revolution in Iraq in 1958 ended British influence and the protectorate officially terminated in 1961 when Iraq immediately claimed the whole of Kuwait. The claim was based on the fact that Kuwait was part of the former Ottoman province of Basra and it was later reinforced by the construction of a commercial port and naval base at Umm Qasr on the Khor Zubair. The UK had previously constructed a port at Umm Qasr during World War II but this was later dismantled. Demarcation and delimitation ended in March 1992 with the Khor Abdullah between Iraq and Warbah Island being defined by a median line.
