Conflicts Do Not Persist Because of Time… but Because of How They Are Managed

This article examines why the Ahwazi question has remained unresolved for more than a century—not because of time or inherent complexity, but because it has been managed instead of politically resolved. It presents Ahwaz as a question of a people, a land, and the inalienable right to self-determination, while showing how the continued Iranian occupation of Ahwaz produces deferred tensions that extend into energy security and regional and international stability. The text calls for a clear, internationally supervised political process through which the Ahwazi Arab people can freely exercise their right to full self-determination, up to and including independence, in accordance with international law.

ENGLISH

Hamid Shayea Al-Ahwazi

4/29/2026

What is managed instead of resolved… is never truly contained.

This is not a theoretical discussion… but a clear assertion of the Ahwazi Arab people’s right to self-determination—up to and including full independence—in accordance with international law.

It is not time that prolongs unresolved questions…

but the way they are managed.

The Ahwazi question has not merely persisted over time under Iranian occupation…

it has been prevented from reaching a just political resolution.

There is a difference between what persists because of genuine complexity…

and what persists because no decision has been made to resolve it.

What is left unresolved does not remain frozen…

It adapts, continues, and transforms from a passing event into a permanent factor within the wider equation.

Questions that are not resolved… do not disappear.

They are reproduced within new crises.

For more than a century, the Ahwazi question has neither been concluded nor resolved…

It has repeatedly been reorganized within broader political arrangements.

What is presented as “stability” is not the result of resolution…

but the result of management.

And every act of management is a temporary postponement of what remains unresolved.

Stability that is not built upon resolution…

is built upon delay.

Ahwaz is not an exception…

It is a central measure of how seriously unresolved national and political questions are addressed.

It is not a geographical margin…

but a strategic location where energy routes intersect with regional and international security dynamics.

For this reason, its impact does not end at its borders…

It extends far beyond them.

A land whose wealth is controlled against the will of the Ahwazi Arab people does not produce stability…

It produces deferred tension.

In Ahwaz, we are not speaking merely about resources…

but about the relationship between a land and its people.

When this relationship is controlled against the will of the Ahwazi Arab people, it does not only disturb the internal balance…

It reshapes the external environment as well.

What is not resolved internally…

does not remain internal.

For this reason, the Ahwazi question can no longer be treated as an “internal affair.”

Its consequences do not remain confined within borders:

disruptions in the energy sphere,

cross-border tensions,

and crises that are repeatedly reproduced in different forms.

Deferred questions…

become permanent sources of instability over time.

What is managed instead of resolved…

is reproduced in increasingly complex forms.

What is later described as “complexity” is often the direct consequence of an earlier decision:

to manage the question instead of resolving it.

International law is clear:

the right of peoples to self-determination is inalienable—

it does not expire with time,

and it cannot be nullified through denial.

This right is affirmed in the Charter of the United Nations and in the international covenants of 1966 as a legal principle and obligation…

not merely a political option.

International law is not tested by the degree of political acceptance it receives…

but by the consistency with which it is applied.

The world today does not lack an understanding of these questions…

It lacks the decision to confront them as they truly are:

unresolved political questions—

not merely legal files to be administered.

The distinction is fundamental:

A legal file can be administered…

but a political question must be resolved.

When political questions are reduced to legal files and administrative procedures…

their resolution is inevitably postponed.

The Ahwazi question does not present an emotional demand today…

It presents a direct political question:

Can Iranian occupation and political control continue indefinitely in place of a genuine resolution?

The answer is not theoretical…

because the cost of delay accumulates and appears in the form of continuing instability.

A principle that is not applied…

does not merely lose its force…

It loses its meaning.

The path toward a resolution is no longer ambiguous or open to endless interpretation.

The true nature of the question must first be recognized:

It is a question of a people,

a land,

and the right to self-determination.

The Ahwazi question must then be placed within a declared political process, governed by a clear timetable and founded upon the principles of international law.

The exercise of this right cannot be confined to temporary administrative formulas…

nor to internal arrangements that leave the essence of the crisis untouched.

The right to self-determination extends to full self-determination—up to and including independence—through a free, fair, and internationally supervised process whose results are respected.

The Ahwazi Arab people under Iranian occupation must be able to express their free will without coercion, violence, or restrictions imposed by the occupying power.

This requires a clearly defined path:

independent international supervision,

binding legal guarantees,

and an implementation mechanism that does not permit another cycle of delay.

Anything less than this…

is not a resolution…

but the reproduction of the crisis in another form.

Stability that does not arise from the free will of the Ahwazi Arab people…

cannot endure.

Ahwaz is not merely one part of this wider landscape…

It is one of its defining points.

It reveals what happens when unresolved questions are managed for decades instead of being addressed at their roots.