P. Toye – författare

The aim of the present work is to provide, in a single source of reference, copies of those historical documents which cumulatively defined the geographical and political limits of Palestine up to the end of the British Mandate in 1947. The work is intended to establish an objective historical base, taken from the records, for understanding the evolution of the territorial idea of Palestine before the modern era. The collection is also intended to demonstrate the extent and limits of responsibility, particularly British and French, for territorial decisions, and likewise the extent of solid international agreement on the delimitation of Palestine boundaries in the past.

The documents focus on two different types of borders; those that coincided with the British Mandate for Palestine, and the lines that resulted from the war-won divisions of land following the 1949 cease-fire and the final location of the opposing armies. The armistice lines basically followed the course of mandate boundaries with Transjordan, Syria and Lebanon with small modifications. The operative border between Israel and Jordan on the West Bank was based exclusively on an armistice line that had no geographical or historical foundations; other complications arose because of the vagueness of the original definitions of the mandatory boundaries. The major events, in this period, which established Israel´s modern borders were the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan, the war that followed the creation of Israel in 1948 and the subsequent United Nations Armistice Agreements negotiated between Israel and each of its Arab neighbours: Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt.

Disputes over the status of Abu Musa and the Tunbs dominate the maritime history of the southern Persian Gulf as recorded for the last hundred years in the archives of the Foreign Office and the British government in India. This collection of primary source material makes available for the first time the vital historical evidence pertaining to the status of the islands. It highlights the interaction of interstate relations and claims, traditional trade and tribal activity and the extent to which natural resources dictate national claims. The issues involve Iran, the UAE, Abu Musa, the Tunbs, the lower Persian Gulf islands and the Strait of Hormuz. These volumes present balanced historical evidence on the long-standing dispute over island sovereignty, documenting successive Iranian claims and also the positions taken by the British government on behalf of the Qasimi shaikhdoms before UAE independence.