Iraqi parliament moves to counter Kuwaiti ‘excesses’
Parliamentary blocs in Iraq are considering what they describe as “Kuwaiti encroachments” on the country’s maritime rights, while Baghdad is trying to improve relations with Kuwait since the restoration of relations in 2003 following the American invasion and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s regime.
Former MP and Minister of Transportation Amer Abdul-Jabbar Ismail revealed on Tuesday, according to the Iraqi Kurdish website Shafaq News, that he is collecting signatures in order to confront “Kuwaiti excesses.”
The MP accused Kuwait of drilling oil wells near the border port of Basra and said he had been corresponding with the oil and foreign ministries since last July about “Kuwaiti violations.”
“A Kuwaiti offshore oil platform was spotted 18 nautical miles from Khor al-Khafkah and Basra oil port,” he said.
In 2012, Iraqi authorities signed an agreement with Kuwait to “cooperate in regulating maritime navigation and preserving the marine environment in the Khor Abdullah waterway”, known as the “Khor Abdullah Agreement”.
Kuwait rejected in 2019 Iraq’s decision to protest to the Security Council over the construction of the oil platform as it affects the delineation of the maritime border between the two countries, pointing out that the platform is in its territorial waters and is part of its national sovereignty, while Baghdad is the platform in an area still disputed.
In recent years, Iraqi-Kuwaiti relations have been defined in terms of a number of contentious issues, despite the fact that former Iraqi President Barham Salih visited Kuwait in November of the same year, where he met with the late Emir, Sheik Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.
Alaa al-Haidari, a former MP for Basra province, stirred controversy after he called in April for the deployment of PMF forces to protect Iraqi fishermen in the territorial waters, which he described as “Kuwaiti excesses”.
Earlier on Wednesday evening, May 2, 2019, protesters unfurled the Kuwaiti flag in front of its consulate in Basra governorate, protesting what they said was an abuse of Basra women by a Kuwaiti tribal sheik.
Dozens of Basra residents gathered in front of the Kuwaiti Consulate in central Basra at the time and raised banners demanding that the Kuwaiti government apologize to the Iraqi people and women in Basra.
In August 1990, Iraq under the late President Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait before Iraqi forces were driven out seven months later by US-led international forces during the Gulf War.
In recent years, Iraqi governments have sought to resolve problems with the Kuwaiti side by returning the remains of prisoners and missing persons and offering billions of dollars in compensation.
