feb 26, 2001 - BAHRAIN: BP advises Crown Prince on Hawar Islands dispute

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Bell says he advised the then crown prince on how to have the islands legally declared as Bahraini. NOTE: Papers on this case were filed a decade earlier, so when exactly Bell's anecdote falls could be anywhere between 1990 and the 2001 ruling.

"We swooped down to the island. You could see nothing on the island except this bloody great palace, which was his place. Everything else seemed to be perfectly normal. We flew back again and he said "That's the disputed island." Actually, it was claimed by Sharjah, which is another Emirate on the edge of Dubai.
I said "Will you need to make a submission about the historical ownership of..." I don't know anything about how you claim an island...I used common sense.
I said "You get your lawyers to put together a document why it's yours. What its history is an so on." He said "Fine."
"There's nobody on it, it's a completely empty island apart from your palace. The only jobs there are are working in your palace. So make that clear." He did that and they won the right to the island in the international court in the Hague which granted them ownership of it. And that was fine. So I was regarded as a quite useful person. I had done some good things. I think I got the Economic Development Board as a gesture of thanks."

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