evidence: Abu Musa is a small island situated in the Persian Gulf whose strategic position allows the power that controls it to influence the maritime traffic that passes through the Strait of Hormuz. This characteristic made it the point of contention between Iran and the United Arab Emirates, both states actively claiming their sovereignty over the island along with its sister islands of the Greater and Lesser Tunb. [...] The Island of Abu Musa is the largest of the three islands that Iran and UAE are contesting, and along with the other two islands holds a very strategically important position in the Persian Gulf due to the maritime traffic passing through the Strait of Hormuz. The dispute started to take shape over a century ago and it still affects the bilateral relations between the two states. The rationales for possessing these territories are both economic and military. From an economic point of view, the islands confer the owner an increased influence of the trade the passes through the Straits, and from a military point of view, military bases on these islands can exert significant control over the maritime commerce in the region.