the ottomans were willing to drop all claims to bahrain, in which they had never been able to maintain anything but a symbolic role, but not qatar. as a question of sovereignty, the ottomans argued that the empire had always exercised effective sovereignty over the peninsula and could not justify the abandonment of territory which it had never formally renounced. yet under considerable pressure it renounced claims to both (articles 11 & 13) and a blue line was established to define the territorial limits of ottoman jurisdiction. this line separated the ottoman sanjak of najd from qatar. the blue line began a few miles to the south of zaknuniya (which was included in the sanjak), directly south up to the rub' al-khali (article 11). the agreement did not mention that zaknuniya would be part of the najd sanjak in return for an ottoman consideration of £ 1,000 paid to the sheikh of bahrain via the british government.