Buraimi: The Struggle for Power, Influence and Oil in Arabia

305 Pages·2013·22.01 MB·English

by  Michael Quentin Morton

156 x 234 Buraimi title page_Layout 1 02/08/2013 17:43 Page 1
Buraimi
The Struggle for Power,
Influence and Oil in Arabia
MICHAEL QUENTIN MORTON
Michael Quentin Morton grew up in Qatar, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi
in the 1950s and 1960s. A barrister using his first-hand knowledge of
the region, he has written a number of books and articles on the
history of oil exploration in the Arabian Peninsula.
For Gill
Buraimi
The Struggle for Power, Influence and Oil in Arabia
_______

Michael Quentin Morton
Published in 2013 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd
6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU
175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010
www.ibtauris.com

Distributed in the United States and Canada Exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan
175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY10010

Copyright © 2013 Michael Quentin Morton

The right of Michael Quentin Morton to be identified as the author of this work has
been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part
thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN 978 1 84885 818 3

A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available

Printed and bound in Sweden by ScandBook AB
from camera-ready copy edited and supplied by the author

Every effort has been made to trace the owners of all copyrighted materials and to
secure permission from copyright holders. If errors have been made, we would be
pleased to make the necessary corrections in future printings.
Contents

Acknowledgements vii
List of Illustrations viii
Abbreviations x
Note to the Reader xii
Notes on the Main Characters xiii

Prologue 1
1. Jedda Calling 7
2. A Bend in the Wadi 17
3. The Riyadh Line 26
4. Lanterns in the Dark 34
5. A Tale of Two Brothers 50
6. Squeezing Aramco 63
7. The Stobart Incident 75
8. Borderlands 86
9. Turki and the Tribes 95
10. Taking a Stand 110
vi BURAIMI
11. The Hamasa Blockade 120
12. No Oil Man’s Land 133
13. Make it a Red Fire 144
14. The Buraimi Arbitration Tribunal 159
15. Dust in Their Eyes 174
16. Operation Bonaparte 181
17. The Road to Suez 192
18. Rebels and Refugees 205
19. Shaybah Rising 216
Epilogue 231

Maps 239
Glossary 242
References 245
Bibliography 270
Index 277
Acknowledgements

This book is about the Buraimi dispute, or Buraimi affair, as it was
known, which propelled a quiet oasis onto the world stage and laid the
foundations for the modern states of the United Arab Emirates and
Oman.
For the handful of Westerners who knew it in the 1950s, the
Buraimi Oasis denoted a group of oases and nine villages situated
between the desert and mountains of south-eastern Arabia. Today,
they would hardly recognise the area. On the UAE side of the border,
six of the villages have been swallowed up by the Al-Ain conurbation,
while on the Omani side the pace of development has not been quite
so rapid.
I have been especially fortunate to have received help from a few
who lived through those times: Peter Clayton, formerly of the Trucial
Oman Levies; Michael Sterner, former US ambassador to Abu Dhabi;
Julian Walker and the late Sir John Wilton, erstwhile British diplomats.
Dr A.T. and Amr al-Otaishan, son and grandson respectively of Turki
bin Abdullah al-Otaishan, helped me to see the affair in a different
light. For their guidance, assistance and advice, I wish to thank Peter
Aitkens, Tim Barger, Arthur P. Clarke, Dr Paul Cornelius, Dr Alan
Heward, Nick Lee, Ivor Lucas, Doug Manning, Ron Miller, Julian
Paxton, John Vale, Sir Harold Walker and Dr John Wilkinson. My
thanks also to Minna Cowper-Coles for advice on the manuscript;
Elizabeth Stone for proofreading services; John Harper, Linda Burton
and the staff at the Chevron Archive, San Francisco; Nicholas Scheetz
and Scott S. Taylor of the Georgetown University Library, Washing-
ton DC; Peter Housego and Joanne Burman of the BP Archive,
Warwick University; Debbie Usher of the Middle East Centre Archive,
St Antony’s College, Oxford.
Finally my brother Peter Morton and my mother Heather
provided sterling support for this project. And to my late father, the
geologist and explorer Mike Morton, I shall always be grateful.
List of Illustrations

Abdul Aziz ibn Abdul Rahman Al Saud (‘Ibn Saud’) 8
Ibn Saud with Casoc representatives 22
Sultan Said bin Taimur 38
Wilfred Thesiger 47
Saud bin Jiluwi 54
Shakhbut bin Sultan Al Nahyan 58
Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan 62
Abdullah Suleiman 69
Suleiman bin Hamyar and Imam Ghalib bin Ali al-Hinawi 88
Saqr bin Sultan al-Naimi 89
Obaid bin Juma al-Kaabi 90
Rashid bin Hamad al-Shamsi 92
The Buraimi Oasis 98
Turki bin Abdullah al-Otaishan 100
Prince Faisal at a press conference, 11 March 1953 117
The Jimi tower 124
Buraimi suq with Sheikh Saqr’s fort in the background 127
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ix
Yusuf Yasin 135
Major Abdullah bin Nami 146
Sir Hartley Shawcross, QC 163
The ruins of Hamasa 190
Meeting of rulers at Buraimi, December 1955 198
Anthony Eden and John Foster Dulles 200
Colonel Nasser meets King Saud, 9 March 1956 204
A suspected mine smuggler 209
King Fahd, Sheikh Zayed and Sultan Qaboos, 1994 226

Maps
The Arabian Peninsula in 1948 239
Boundary proposals 240
South-eastern Arabia 241