The Hawar Islands are a group of island

Island

An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...

s situated off the west coast of Qatar

Qatar

Qatar , also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its...

 in the Gulf of Bahrain

Gulf of Bahrain

The Gulf of Bahrain is an inlet of the Persian Gulf on the east coast of Saudi Arabia, separated from the main body of water by the peninsula of Qatar. It surrounds the islands of Bahrain. The King Fahd Causeway crosses the western section of the Gulf of Bahrain, connection Saudi Arabia to Bahrain....

 of the Persian Gulf

Persian Gulf

The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...

.

Despite their proximity to Qatar (Suwād al Janūbīyah is only 1.4 km from the Qatari mainland at the peninsula

Peninsula

A peninsula is a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to mainland. In many Germanic and Celtic languages and also in Baltic, Slavic and Hungarian, peninsulas are called "half-islands"....

 of Ras Abruq, while Rubud Al Gharbiyah, the island closest to the main island of Bahrain, lies at a distance of 19.7 km to it), the islands belong to Bahrain

Bahrain

' , officially the Kingdom of Bahrain , is a small island state near the western shores of the Persian Gulf. It is ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family. The population in 2010 stood at 1,214,705, including 235,108 non-nationals. Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared a kingdom in 2002.Bahrain is...

 but were the subject of a dispute

Foreign relations of Qatar

Qatar achieved full independence on 3 September 1971 in an atmosphere of cooperation with the United Kingdom, the United States of America and friendship with neighbouring states. Most Arab states were also among the first countries to recognise Qatar, and the state promptly gained admittance to...

 between Bahrain and Qatar.