Gulf Arab Countries Back Kuwait in Spat02/23 06:19

   

   BAGHDAD (AP) -- 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's -- 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 neighbors 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 complaint to the U.N., 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. Iraq's Federal Supreme Court subsequently annulled 
the agreement.