evidence: Syria supported a declaration at the Arab League summit in Bahrain this month promoting "the sovereignty of the United Arab Emirates over its three islands" in the Gulf, referring to Abu Musa, Lesser Tunb, and Greater Tunb. Iran claims and has controlled these islands since 1971, seizing them as the United Kingdom withdrew from the area and the UAE declared independence. [...] Syria has extended recognition to Russia’s universally unpopular and unrecognised territorial claims to the Crimean Peninsula in Ukraine and South Ossetia in Georgia. However, recognising Iran’s claim to Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs would prove much more politically complicated for Damascus.