Arab countries back Kuwait in dispute with Iraq

A dispute between Iraq and Kuwait over their maritime border that reignited over the weekend has prompted Gulf Arab countries to side with Kuwait, putting Baghdad on the defensive on Monday over its demand. The dispute came after Iraq recently submitted a map and geographic coordinates to the United Nations to delineate what it says are Iraqi areas in the Persian Gulf waters — some of which Kuwait claims infringe on its territory.

Although relations have improved between the two countries since the 2003 ouster of former Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein - who invaded Kuwait in 1990 — their maritime boundary has been a persistent cause of friction. Kuwait’s foreign ministry said Iraq’s claim infringes on Kuwait’s sovereignty by placing Kuwaiti areas, including the Fasht al-Qaid and Fasht al-Aij shoals, in Iraqi territory.

Kuwait’s neighbours are now backing its stand, with Qatar, the United Emirates and Oman issuing statements in solidarity. Saudi Arabia said it has “serious concerns” about the Iraqi map, adding that it also encroaches on a joint Saudi-Kuwaiti zone.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said in a statement Monday that Kuwait had “deposited its maps with the United Nations in 2014, without consulting Iraq at the time.” He said that Iraq is committed to “the provisions of international law and ... to regulating its maritime rights within the established legal frameworks, thereby contributing to the strengthening of stability and cooperation in the region.” In 2019, Iraq sent a complaint to the UN, accusing Kuwait of pursuing a “policy of fait accompli by creating a new situation that changes the geography of the region” after it built a port facility on the Fasht al-Aij shoal.

Iraq and Kuwait have for years wrangled over Khor Abdullah, a narrow waterway shared by Iraq and Kuwait that empties into the Persian Gulf.  In 2012, they reached an agreement regulating travel in the waterway, but in 2023, two Iraqi lawmakers sued to overturn the agreement, saying that it infringed on Iraq’s sovereignty and had been adopted without following proper parliamentary procedures.