Shafaq News – Babil
On Friday, a conference in Babil demanded Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani face an investigative judge or resign, with participants denouncing the Khor Abdullah agreement.
The gathering in Al-Hamza al-Gharbi district, which brought together political, religious, legal, and academic figures from across the country, urged al-Sudani to implement Federal Supreme Court ruling No. 105/2023, which annulled the maritime deal, and to register the decision with the UN and the International Maritime Organization. They also demanded he enforce Cabinet Resolution No. 266 of April 2025 by submitting Iraq’s maritime boundary maps to the UN.
Speakers noted that a lawsuit filed in April 2025 has yet to result in Al-Sudani’s referral to an investigative judge.
Speaking during the conference, MP Yasser al-Husseini faulted Iraqi negotiators for inaction, noting that while the Federal Court annulled the Khor Abdullah agreement, the lack of follow-up with Turkiye has worsened the crisis.
The maritime channel of Khor Abdullah, separating Iraq’s al-Faw Peninsula from Kuwait’s Bubiyan Island, has long been at the center of disputes over sovereignty and access to the Gulf. Following Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 833 in 1993, which demarcated the land and sea borders between the two countries, splitting the channel down the middle.
In 2012, Iraq and Kuwait signed a navigation deal to manage Khor Abdullah, but it quickly fueled backlash in Baghdad. Critics called it a surrender of sovereignty, warning it limited Iraq’s maritime access despite clauses affirming borders remained unchanged. Parliament scrapped the deal in 2023, triggering a Kuwaiti protest at the UN. Today, the channel sits at the heart of competing mega-projects — Iraq’s Grand al-Faw Port and Kuwait’s Mubarak al-Kabeer Port — turning a legal dispute into a contest over regional trade dominance.
Read more: Khor Abdullah: A waterway entangled insovereignty disputes and legacy of invasion