evidence: ABU DHABI — History stands witness to the fact that Abu Mousa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs islands are part of the UAE territories, a foreign historian-cum-diplomat has asserted. The islands should really have belonged to Ras Al Khaimah as the emirate had the strongest claim over the islands since it had controlled them with the help of the British between 1870 and 1900, Julian Walker, a British historian known for his diplomatic missions in the Gulf region, told Khaleej Times in an exclusive interview yesterday on the sidelines of the conference on ‘Bedouin Society in the Emirates' here. Stating that history documents the three islands as belonging to the country, Walker said: "The protection of the islands was vested with Ras Al Khaimah until the withdrawal of the British forces in 1971. The Shah of Iran has been claiming the Islands. He abandoned his claim to Bahrain and had reached an agreement with the Ruler of Sharjah over Abu Mousa. [...] He said the day before the British officially ended their protection, the Shah sent his navy and seized the islands. A small police post of the Ruler of Ras Al Khaimah on the Tunbs islands resisted the Shah's forces for four hours. "That was how the islands were seized by the Iranians," he said, adding that the Shah could achieve victory only because of the large naval force and the villagers fleeing to Ras Al Khaimah since they didn't want to be under Iranian rule.