In the decades following the takeover, the issue remained a source of friction between the UAE and Iran. Negotiations between the UAE and Iran in 1992 failed. The UAE attempted to bring the dispute before the International Court of Justice, but Iran refused. Iran says the islands always belonged to it as it had never renounced possession of the islands, and that they are part of Iranian territory. The UAE argues that the islands were under the control of Qasimi sheikhs throughout the 19th century, whose rights were then inherited by the UAE in 1971. Iran counters by stating that the local Qasimi rulers during a relevant part of the 19th century were actually based on the Iranian, not the Arab, coast, and had thus become Persian subjects.