Karun River and Shatt Al Arab River
The Karun River begins in the Zagros Mountains of western Iran and flows south to Iraq, where it empties into the Shatt al Arab. In Iran the Karun River extends for 720 kilometers, and by 1888 it had become a major route of foreign trade for Iran. Today it remains that country's primary inland navigation system. During World War II the construction of a rail line between the river port of Khorramshahr and the main Iranian railway system, however, caused the Karun trade route to lose its significance. Nowadays the Karun is used as a transportation corridor for oil exports and commodity imports, accessible only to shallow-draft vessels. The river also serves agricultural needs: Shushtar dam blocks the river to irrigate an area of 1,300 square kilometers. Due to its economic and strategic significance, control of the Shatt al Arab has long been contested. The earliest documented dispute was settled by a treaty signed in 1639, which was intended to establish a boundary between Iran (then Persia) and the Ottoman empire, including today's Iraq. Because of the vagueness of this and other treaties, the conflict over the Shatt al Arab has persisted. There has been continual treaty negotiation and annulment since World War I, and the increase in regional oil production in the 1960s and 1970s served to intensify the conflict. Control of the Shatt al Arab was one of the main reasons for the Iraqi invasion of Iran and the ensuing 1980–1988 war.
Further Reading
Ionides, Michael G. (1937) The Régime of the Rivers, Euphrates and Tigris: A General Hydraulic Survey of Their Basins, Including the River Karun. London: E. & F. N. Spon.
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