evidence: Officials in Tehran maintain that the islands belonged to successive Persian empires, while their Emirati counterparts claim that Arab traders ruled Greater and Lesser Tunbs and Abu Musa for centuries before the British arrived. The three islands themselves are barren. Greater and Lesser Tunbs are uninhabited, while Abu Musa is home to approximately 2,000 permanent civilian residents. In 1972, there were 800 natives on Abu Musa, mostly Arabs descended from the Qasimi tribe, though "a few unskilled Iranian laborers arrived" after Iran seized it. Abu Musa’s Emirati residents have complained that Iran’s government has altered the island’s demographics by moving in Iranian "settlers" to the point where Iranians now far outnumber Emirati citizens and expatriates on Abu Musa. Media outlets in the UAE have reported that Iranian authorities in Abu Musa routinely harass Emiratis and expatriates on the island to try to pressure them into leaving. The islands are also strategically valuable to both sides due to their location near the Strait of Hormuz. Whichever country controls Greater and Lesser Tunbs and Abu Musa can dominate the sea lanes coming in and out of the Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz. During the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88), the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) used Abu Musa to mount attacks during the "Tanker War" (1984-88).