Category: War, from Wikidata’s class “military operation”
Seizure of Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs
Wikidata classes on our event-class list: military operation (all its classes: Wikidata item)
The seizure of Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs by the Imperial Iranian Navy took place on 30 November 1971, shortly after the withdrawal of British forces from the islands of Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs, all located in the Strait of Hormuz between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. The Imperial State of Iran had claimed sovereignty over both sets of islands, while the Emirate of Ras al-Khaimah claimed the Greater and Lesser Tunbs and the Emirate of Sharjah claimed Abu Musa.
Following the seizure of the islands by Iran, both the emirates of Sharjah and Ras al-Khaimah acceded to the newly formed United Arab Emirates, doing so on 2 December 1971 and 10 February 1972, respectively, causing the United Arab Emirates to inherit the territorial dispute with Iran over the islands. As of 2026, the islands remain disputed between the United Arab Emirates and the Islamic Republic of Iran.
On the ground, Iran has maintained its control over the islands since their seizure in 1971, while the United Arab Emirates has made several attempts through international channels to gain sovereign control of the islands.
Text retrieved 2026-09-26 from Wikipedia.
Cite this
The link is the Wikipedia revision of August 22, 2026 (revision 1370737653), whose lead is exactly the text shown here.
APA 7
Seizure of Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs. (2026, August 22). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Seizure_of_Abu_Musa_and_the_Greater_and_Lesser_Tunbs&oldid=1370737653
MLA 9
“Seizure of Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Aug. 2026, en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Seizure_of_Abu_Musa_and_the_Greater_and_Lesser_Tunbs&oldid=1370737653.
Chicago (note)
Wikipedia, “Seizure of Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs,” last modified August 22, 2026, 20:57 (UTC), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Seizure_of_Abu_Musa_and_the_Greater_and_Lesser_Tunbs&oldid=1370737653.
Chicago (shortened note)
Wikipedia, “Seizure of Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs.”
Chicago cites well-known reference works such as Wikipedia in notes only, not in the bibliography.
This event on Middle East, 1900–present: https://middleeast.events/event/seizure-of-abu-musa-and-the-greater-and-lesser-tunbs
If you use the map’s borders: CShapes 2.0 - historical country borders. Schvitz, G., et al. (2022). CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. https://icr.ethz.ch/data/cshapes/ (modified by middleeast.events); West Bank Areas A/B/C: UN OCHA / HDX "Oslo Agreement" Areas A/B/C (West Bank). Distributed under the legacy HumanitarianResponse.info terms: non-commercial use with credit to UN OCHA. https://data.humdata.org/dataset/state-of-palestine-other-0-0-0-0-0; some corrected border points: GeoNames - CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://www.geonames.org/
No map location: Wikipedia and Wikidata give no coordinates for this event, so it has no marker on the map.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by Wikipedia contributors, from the article Seizure of Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs. Classes are Wikidata’s labels (CC0).