ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s highest judicial authority, the Federal Supreme Court, is set to look into a crucial appeal on Wednesday, filed separately by the country’s president and premier, seeking to reinstate the Khor Abdullah agreement with Kuwait. The maritime accord governs navigation rights and boundary demarcation in the strategic Khor Abdullah waterway. It was previously nullified by the same court in 2023.
The Khor Abdullah agreement - signed in 2012 and ratified by Iraq in 2013 under Law No. 42 - regulates navigation rights in the Khor Abdullah waterway, Iraq’s only direct maritime access to the Gulf. It lies between Kuwait’s Bubiyan and Warba islands and Iraq’s al-Faw Peninsula.
In September 2023, the Federal Supreme Court ruled the agreement unconstitutional, arguing that the Iraqi Parliament ratified it with a simple majority rather than the required two-thirds majority. The decision was welcomed by certain political factions within Iraq but drew condemnation from Kuwait.
Soran Omar, a member of the Iraqi parliament’s Economic and Investment Committee, then told Rudaw that several Shiite lawmakers supported the legal challenge, viewing the agreement as unfavorable to Iraqi interests.
While welcomed by some Iraqi political blocs, the September 2023 ruling sparked contention with Kuwait.
Kuwait’s then-Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Sabah urged Iraq to adopt “concrete, decisive, and urgent measures” to “address historical fallacies against Kuwait” in the court ruling.
He further expressed Kuwait’s “desire to finalize the border demarcation process with Iraq” - a process left incomplete after the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the subsequent UN Resolution 833 of 1993, which only delineated the land border.
The Iraqi state-run news agency (INA), then quoted Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani as telling Sabah that Iraq is committed to “joint agreements” and respects Kuwaiti territory.
More recently, in April 2024, the Iraqi PM Sudani and President Abdul Latif Rashid individually appealed to the Federal Supreme Court to reverse its annulment of the agreement.
The appeal came amid increasing diplomatic pressure from Kuwait, its Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) allies, and the United States, all of whom have called on Iraq to maintain the agreement in the interest of regional stability.
While the UN Resolution 833 of 1993 demarcated the land border between Iraq and Kuwait, it left the maritime boundary undefined. The Khor Abdullah pact was a bilateral effort to resolve that gap, but remains a symbol of unresolved tensions.
Hastyar Qadir contributed to this report.
