CONFIDENTIAL arbitration. He had told Mr. Aram this when he was inLondon at the end of last year. Her Majesty's Governmenthad hoped that this would not be necessary and that thepresent talks would be successful. But in the light ofthe failure of these it would be very difficult to argueconvincingly with the Ruler. Mr. Teimur demurred. He saidthat since the baselines had been agreed on, it should notbe difficult to restrain Shaikh Shakhbut. Mr. Brenchleyremarked that they had only been provisionally agreed on.Mr. Teimur argued that they now knew where the Median Linewas, even if the terminal point was not fixed, Mr. Brenchleysaid that Shaikh Shakhbut considered that the islands ofDas and Halul should be included in the baseline. Mr. Teimur said that his legal adviser considered thatthey must settle this matter. Mr. Brenchley said that therewere two problems. Shaikh Shakhbut disagreed that the basemline should be the mainland only. Unless they could persuadehim to change his mind it would be difficult to settle theMedian Line. Mr. Teimur was sure that Her Majesty's Governmentcould persuade him. Mr. Brenchley remarked that if they had beenable to reach agreement last April, it might well have beenpossible. But now he was excited by the drilling of theAtlantic Oil Company. Speaking frankly, one of the difficultieswas that Shaikh Shakhbut did not understand how median linesworked. He was not an expert in these matters. He had simplygot out his ruler and measured a straight line from northto south. Unfortunately his first information about the rig'sexact position was not accurate. He had been very angry withHer Majesty's Government. He had proposed arbitration. We hadhoped to avoid this expensive and time consuming process. Butnow it would be difficult to talk him out of it, Mr. Teimurargued that since Her Majesty's Government considered the linethat had been drawn between them reasonable they could easilypersuade him. Mr. Brenchley said that it was possible if theycould put an agreed line to him. But unfortunately it seemedthat they would not be in a position to do this, Mr. Teimursaid that they could not complete the Abu Dhabi line because ofSirri, Mr. Brenchley did not understand this. He asked how ithad been possible to ignore Bahrain in the agreement with SaudiArabia, Dr. Naficy said that this was not relevant, Bahrainwas not claimed by Saudi Arabia, Mr. Brenchley replied thatnor was Sirri claimed by Abu Dhabi.. The two cases were exactlyparallel. Indeed Bahrain was probably nearer to Saudi Arabiathan Sirri to Abu Dhabi. SERIES Mr. Teimur felt that since both sides were eager to solvethe problems, they must be able to do so. He asked whether HerMajesty's Government would agree to start from both ends az i worktowards the middle. They should first settle the sovereignty ofthe Tunbs and the Median Line in the Ras al-Khaimah sector as oneend and the Qatar sector at the other. They would thus confinethe area of disputee Mr. Brenchley said that there was nothingmore to discuss as far as Qatar and Abu Dhabi were concerned,Dr, Nafiey agreed that he too had considered this to be so untilthe problem of Sirri had been raised by the British side,Mr. Teimur again suggested that if they started from both endsthere would be only a small unsettled gap in the middle.Mr. Brenchley repeated that there was no obstacle to immediateagreement on the Qatar and Abu Dhabi sectors. /Mr. Teimur E ESE TAS CONFIDENTIAL
