Iraqis rally against maritime treaty with Kuwait

Shafaq News – Baghdad

Dozens of protesters led by lawmaker Amer Abdul-Jabbar rallied in Baghdad’s al-Nusour Square on Monday, demanding the cancellation of the Khor Abdullah agreement with Kuwait.

Security sources told Shafaq News that the demonstration turned tense when forces cordoned off the area, blocked filming, and deployed riot police. Another group led by activist Dhirgham Majid was stopped outside the capital for lacking protest permits.

Abdul-Jabbar, a former Transport Minister, has warned that larger demonstrations could follow unless the government enforces a 2023 Federal Supreme Court ruling that struck down the treaty’s ratification. He cautioned that calls could escalate to seeking Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani’s dismissal.

The court ruling annulled a 2013 law approving the Khor Abdullah agreement — which governs navigation, safety, and environmental oversight of the shared waterway, Iraq’s only access to the Gulf — on the basis that it failed to secure the two-thirds parliamentary majority required under the constitution.

While many Iraqis view the deal as a concession of sovereignty and maritime rights, the government has defended it as a way to ease tensions with Kuwait and settle a decades-long dispute over the strategic channel.