GCC FMs urge Iraq to address negative developments on Khor Abdullah agreement

GCC FMs urge Iraq to address negative developments on Khor Abdullah agreement

Foreign Ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council member states urged Iraq to take “serious and urgent” steps to deal with the negative developments on the Khor Abdullah maritime agreement, signed with Kuwait, after an Iraqi court’s “inaccurate” ruling on the issue.

This came in a statement following the GCC committee’s meeting held at the Omani permanent delegation’s headquarters in New York late Sunday. During the meeting, Kuwait’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Salem Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah informed the attendees of the latest development on the Khor Abdullah situation.

The statement affirmed that the current development with Iraq “did not serve the relations between the GCC countries and was against charters, treaties, and international agreements including UNSC resolution 833.”

The Iraqi federal court decision, on September 4th, included “inaccurate and out of context historical rationale” regarding the agreement signed between Iraq and Kuwait in 2012 and ratified by the Iraqi side in 2013 — which regulates navigation at Khor Abdullah — and deposited with the UN, the statement said.