"By whose map?"

The scale of the 'newspaper map' is utterly useless!

""Without such an agreement, international law requires countries not to extend their territorial waters "beyond the median line with neighboring states," said Martin Pratt of the University of Durham in Britain.

But defining that line is difficult because of conflicting claims to rock formations, sandbars and barrier islands in the shallow waters of the northern Gulf, Pratt said.

As a result, there may be "legitimate grounds for arguing for a different definition" of those median lines, Pratt said.

"Until a boundary is agreed, you could only be certain that the personnel were in Iraqi territorial waters if they were within 12 miles of the (Iraqi) coast and, at the same time, more than 12 miles from any island, spit, bar or sand bank claimed by Iran," said Craig Murray, former chief of the Maritime Section of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

That means ships operating near the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab – where marshes and sandbars make navigation difficult and where "ownership" of the water is ambiguous – could easily run into trouble. "

""There's a lot of room for making mischief, if that's what you want to do," Schofield said. " "