Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court has surprised the executive authorities by annulling an agreement concluded by former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to regulate maritime navigation with Kuwait in Khor Abdullah.
The court said Monday that it ruled that the agreement concluded with Kuwait in 2013 was unconstitutional, “based on the provisions of the Iraqi Constitution, which stipulates that the process of ratifying international treaties and agreements shall be regulated by a law enacted by a two-thirds majority of the members of Parliament.”
MP Saud al-Saadi from the Huqooq movement said in a post on the X platform that he won the lawsuit he filed against the agreement, noting that the decision will protect the lands and waters of Iraq.
The agreement has always sparked political controversy, under the pretext that Iraq has neglected its navigational corridor in Al-Khor, and that major ports in the country will go out of service in favor of Kuwait. The matter escalated last month when a political crisis erupted over the demarcation of the land border in the Umm Qasr area (south of Basra).
During the past years, Iraqi cities, including Basra, witnessed protests against the agreement, during which activists accused the ruling Shiite parties of deliberately giving up Khor Abdullah.
A joint Kuwaiti-Iraqi committee was supposed to work to regulate navigation in the sea corridor, and agree on its expansion and cleaning operations, but the Federal Court’s decision may push the two countries to resort once again to the United Nations to demarcate their maritime borders, according to an Iraqi parliamentarian.
The United Nations resolution, issued in 1993, considered Khor Abdullah a maritime line dividing the two countries.
The deputy added that Iraq would be required to explain the court’s decision to the international community to ensure that it does not violate the provisions of the UN Security Council.
