Controversy in Iraq as it moves to reinstate maritime deal with Kuwait

High court asked to reconsider Khor Abdullah deal it struck down in 2023

Iraq's highest court will listen to a request to reinstate the Khor Abdullah deal with Kuwait. AFP

Iraq’s highest court will on Wednesday hear a request from the country's leaders to reinstate a water pact with Kuwait that some current and former officials claim would “sell out” Iraqi sovereignty.

The Khor Abdullah deal, under which Iraq and Kuwait shared a waterway into the Arabian Gulf, has been on hold since the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court struck down the maritime agreement in September 2023.

Kuwait, supported by Gulf Co-operation Council states, has expressed concern about the court decision and asked Baghdad to return to the agreement. This month, Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid and Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani asked the court in separate requests to reverse its decision.

However, their requests resulted in a public backlash in Iraq, heating up long-standing border disputes and raising sovereignty questions.

“Iraqi citizens are taking a stand today against any attempts to sell out Iraq’s wealth and sovereign rights, and to affect its maritime boundaries,” MP Soud Al Saiedi told a gathering at Baghdad’s Tahrir Square.

“It is about the future of our nation, our children and our people’s livelihood,” added Mr Al Saiedi, who led the campaign to revoke the law in 2023. “Iraqis are determined to protect their homeland and defend their rights.”

On the other hand, the government pointed out that the agreement does not primarily concern border demarcation, but instead regulates navigation in Khor Abdullah.

Path to the Gulf

Khor Abdullah is a narrow waterway that leads from the Arabian Gulf, curving around Kuwait's Bubiyan and Warba islands on one side and Iraq's Al Faw Peninsula on the other. It is Iraq's only entrance to the Gulf, through which most of its oil exports flow, alongside its imports.

After Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 833 three years later which determined the land border between Iraq and Kuwait. However, the delineation of the maritime border was left to the two countries.

The UN left it to Iraq and Kuwait to settle their maritime border after the First Gulf War. Getty Images

The deal draws a line in the middle of Khor Abdullah and stipulates that “each party shall exercise its sovereignty over that part of the waterway which lies within its territorial water”. It provides that the agreement “shall remain in effect indefinitely” but can be mutually terminated with six months' notice.

The court previously annulled a law ratifying the 2012 deal, in a case filed by several Iraqi MPs. It held that the law was unconstitutional because it should have been passed with a two-thirds majority in parliament, not a simple majority.

Shortly after the ruling, the GCC and US issued a joint statement in which they called on the Iraqi government to “ensure that the agreement remains in force”.

Critics consider the agreement unfair, saying Kuwait has no right to control any part of Khor Abdullah, historically known as an Iraqi canal. They argue that the agreement is meant to delineate a maritime border rather than regulate navigation.

“It’s a humiliating and disastrous agreement for Iraq,” said Amir Abdul-Jabar, who served as transport minister from 2008 to 2010. He said he had filed a lawsuit against Mr Al Sudani for “blocking the court’s ruling”, by refusing to have copies of it deposited at the UN and the International Maritime Organisation.

There was no statement from the government or the presidency on the two lawsuits. Requests for comment from The National to the government went unanswered.

“We are accustomed to our officials making concessions to neighbouring countries in order to gain their support,” said Mohammed Hafidh Ali, an Iraqi engineer. “I see it as a betrayal,” he added.