ABNA24 - Strategically, Persian Gulf has a primary position and extraordinary significance as it is the confluence of the Far East and the West. Despite invention of modern wares that have revolutionized communications and maritime navigation and may have cut importance of traditional routes, not only the Persian Gulf has not lost its credibility, but also due to its prime position and major resources, it has seen its importance increased.
One of the most distinct faces of this growing importance of the Persian Gulf is the Strait of Hormuz which in recent US-Iran war, due to its location in the center of conflict and the impacts of its instability on the world economy, caught the world attention.
Strait of Hormuz
Though sometimes called half-closed sea, the Persian Gulf is an open sea and connected to the Indian Ocean via the Strait of Hormuz.
The Strait of Hormuz, a narrow, winding passage about 100 nautical miles long, connects the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean. Lying between Iran’s mountain ranges and the Musandam Peninsula, the strait is essentially a geographical trough flanked by Iran to the north and the Musandam Peninsula to the south.
At its narrowest point, the strait is just 21 nautical miles wide, sandwiched between Iran’s Larak Island and Oman’s islet of Greater Quoin. Here, both Iran and Oman claim 12 nautical miles of territorial waters—but so far, the two countries have agreed that each effectively controls half the strait.
Until 1979, shipping through the Strait of Hormuz took the shortest route between the Quoin Islands and Musandam. That year, however, Oman declared that vessels must instead navigate outside the Quoin Islands’ limits. The move aimed to ease security challenges along routes that ran too close to Omani waters and coastlines. Today’s shipping lanes, in use since 1979, are about one nautical mile wide each. Still, traffic is not confined to that corridor; even large oil tankers can easily approach within a few miles of Iran’s shores.
Following the colonial Britain withdrawal from the Persian Gulf nearly five decades ago, Iran more than ever understood the significance of its role in protecting regional security and blocking foreign threats.
Historical sources claim that centuries ago the commercial and strategic position of the Strait of Hormuz caught attention of regional and foreign countries.
For Tehran, security of the region is of outmost importance, because regardless of having a powerful army, Iran can use its strategic ports along the strait and its islands that lie in a proper position from this waterway to protect security of the strait appropriately.
At the mouth of the Persian Gulf, Iran controls several strategic islands. Among them, six, known as the "Curved Line" islands, hold the most commanding strategic position: Hormuz, Larak, Qeshm, Hengam, Greater Tunb, and Abu Musa.
In 1978, Iran, acting under the orders of a senior commander, deployed a considerable number of troops and a substantial amount of military equipment to these islands to capitalize on their strategic position. That approach continued in the decades that followed.
Because these islands lie close to one another, an imaginary line, the “curved line” running through them, illustrates just how effectively Iranian firepower in the area can target passing ships.
The islands of the curved line
1. Hormuz
At just eight kilometers wide, this island lies 20 kilometers south of the port city of Bandar Abbas. Over the centuries, it has been regarded as the key to entering the Persian Gulf, a fact reflected in the very name of the Strait of Hormuz, which takes its name from the island.
In the ancient Iran, officially called Persia, Achaemenids used the island as a naval base. It also served as a trading hub for Indians, Chinese, and other Eastern merchants. The Portuguese, for their part, saw it as a stronghold guarding the crossroads of the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean.
Today, as giant oil tankers navigate the strait, Hormuz Island, despite being somewhat removed from the deep-water shipping channel, has lost none of its strategic edge.
2. Larak
The island is located 40 kilometers south of Bandar Abbas province, 20 kilometers west of Hormuz Island, and 12 kilometers east of Qeshm Island.
Larak is the only Iranian island close to the deep-water canal of the Strait of Hormuz through which giant ships normally navigate. Its surface is covered with holes with gentle slope that reach the plains that are located east of the Sea of Oman.
3. Qeshm
Qeshm is the largest island in the Persian Gulf, located 20 kilometers south of Bandar Abbas, 40 kilometers east of Bandar Lengeh, and 31 kilometers east of Greater Tunb. It stretches 140 kilometers in length, up to 40 kilometers wide at its broadest point, yet only eight kilometers across at its narrowest. This arrowhead-like shape led many ancient sources to call it "Kish", meaning arrowhead, though that name actually belongs to another nearby island.
Qeshm is a sandy island with a handful of hills at its center. Its highest point, Mount Bukhu, rises 405 meters above sea level. Covering 1,644 square kilometers, the island's mineral wealth includes oil, natural gas, lead, sulfur, and salt.
4. Hengam
Hengam is a tiny island 3 kilometers east of Qeshm Island, 50 kilometers south of Omani Island of Ghanam and like Larak Island it is located on the brink of the deep-water shipping channels of the Strait of Hormuz.
Hengam Island is 10 kilometers long and three to six kilometers wide. During the Qajar era, Britain established several military bases there. The island’s coastline is highly suitable for naval fleet deployment, and the deep waters just offshore make it ideal as an anchorage for warships and submarines.
5. Greater Tunb
Greater Tunb is located 31 kilometers West of Qeshm precisely opposite to the Strait of Hormuz. This island is located north of Persian Gulf's Thalweg line, 67 kilometers from the shores of the UAE's Ras al-Khaimah.
Greater Tunb is a vital link in Iran’s defensive and sovereign chain across the Strait of Hormuz. Lesser Tunb, located 12 kilometers to the west, derives its strategic importance from its proximity to Greater Tunb.
The famed British diplomat James Morier referenced both islands in his book A Journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor.
"On the twentieth of February we were near two islands called Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb; these names are Persian and belong to the Persian side [of the Persian Gulf].”
6. Abu Musa
Abu Musa, the westernmost island in Iran's hypothetical curved line, forms the last link in the country's defensive chain at the mouth of the Persian Gulf. It lies 67 kilometers from Bandar Lengeh and 62 kilometers from Sharjah's port in the UAE, in other words, almost exactly on the Persian Gulf's Thalweg line.
Larger than Greater and Lesser Tunb, Abu Musa is roughly diamond-shaped. Its central and southern areas are flat and sandy, with highlands rising toward the north until they reach Mount Halva. The island is best known for its palm groves and red iron oxide mine. Abu Musa's oil, contained in the Mubarak field off the island's eastern waters, is considered among the highest quality in the Persian Gulf.
Following the December 1971 agreement between Iran and the Ruler of Sharjah, which restored Iranian sovereignty over the island, Iran enforced its 12-nautical-mile territorial waters zone around Abu Musa. The accord recognizes Iran's sovereignty over Abu Musa while designating residents of Abu Musa village as subjects of the Emirate of Sharjah.
In general, it must be said that Greater Tunb and Abu Musa together with four other islands in the Strait of Hormuz are actually an archipelago in the entry of the Strait of Hormuz with high strategic value.
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