International call to resolve Kuwait-Iraq maritime border disputes

In a concerted effort, the United States and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have joined forces to urge Iraq to address the ongoing maritime border issue with Kuwait. This call comes in the wake of a recent ruling by Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court that annulled the ratification of a maritime navigation agreement between Iraq and Kuwait.

The Federal Supreme Court’s verdict, issued earlier this September, declared the ratification law governing navigation in the Khor Abdullah waterway as unconstitutional. According to the court’s statement, the ratification of international treaties and agreements, in line with the Iraqi constitution, should be governed by a law enacted with a two-thirds majority in the Iraqi Parliament.

The disputed agreement, which regulates marine navigation in the Khor Abdullah canal, was originally reached in 2012 and subsequently confirmed by the legislative bodies of both Iraq and Kuwait in 2013.

Following discussions in New York, where the foreign ministers of the six GCC nations convened with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and GCC Secretary-General Jasem Al-Budaiwi, a joint statement was released. In this statement, the GCC and the United States called for the comprehensive demarcation of the Kuwait-Iraq maritime boundary and urged the Iraqi government to expedite the resolution of the domestic legal status of the 2012 Kuwait-Iraq agreement.

The joint statement further emphasized the importance of concerted efforts between Iraq and the United Nations to reach a resolution on this matter.

The dispute over maritime borders between Iraq and Kuwait has its roots in the United Nations’ demarcation of the land border between the two nations in 1993, following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. The Khor Abdullah, an estuary situated in southern Iraq and northern Kuwait, has been at the center of this dispute. While the border divides the lower part of the estuary, the area adjacent to the port of Umm Qasr falls entirely within Iraqi territory.

In July of the same year, the foreign ministers of Iraq and Kuwait, Fuad Hussein and Salem Al-Sabah, met in Baghdad and underlined the necessity of resolving border issues. Both officials expressed their commitment to achieving a definitive agreement regarding the demarcation of their land borders and the disputed maritime area in the Arabian Gulf.