Iraq court takes up Kuwait sea border case

Shafaq News/ Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court accepted a legal challenge against a Cabinet-approved maritime map, with the plaintiff alleging it amounts to a concession of Iraqi territorial waters to Kuwait, an MP announced.

MP Saud Saadon Al-Saadi, a member of Iraq’s Integrity Committee, said the Federal Supreme Court had accepted his appeal against Cabinet Decision No. 266. Filed under Article 93(3) of the constitution, the challenge claimed the decision contradicts previous binding court rulings and represents a serious breach of national sovereignty.

Yesterday, Kuwaiti media reported that Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid and Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani had filed separate appeals urging the court to reverse its 2023 ruling and reinstate the agreement.

The 2023 ruling annulled Law No. 42 of 2013—legislation ratifying the Iraq-Kuwait agreement on the regulation of maritime navigation in the Khor Abdullah waterway—on the grounds that it was not passed with the required two-thirds parliamentary majority, as stipulated in Article 61(4) of the Iraqi constitution.

The bilateral maritime agreement, signed in 2013 and ratified in line with UN Security Council Resolution 833 (1993), was intended to finalize the demarcation of the Iraq-Kuwait maritime boundary following the 1990 Gulf War. It divided the Khor Abdullah waterway—located at the northern tip of the Arabian Gulf—between Iraq’s Al-Faw Peninsula and Kuwait’s Bubiyan and Warba islands, including key coordinates and navigation channels.

Several Iraqi political figures accused former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and parliament of compromising Iraq’s maritime access by dividing the waterway along a midline rather than the thalweg, or deepest navigable channel—a move they say weakens Iraq’s control over its strategic ports.