Borders and crises: Iraq's new maritime map

2026-02-24 - 23:02

The Middle East has once again become the stage for a new tension in recent days: Iraq’s submission of a new map to the UN, containing updates regarding its maritime border with Kuwait, has prompted a collective reaction from other Gulf countries. In an official statement from the Gulf Cooperation Council, it was stated that this step constitutes a violation of Kuwait’s sovereignty, and called on the Baghdad administration to withdraw the map. The governments of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman also issued separate statements, interpreting Iraq’s map initiative as “interference in Kuwait’s sovereignty.” Following the invasion of Kuwait by then-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in 1990, the United Nations Security Council Resolution 833, adopted in 1993, recorded the 216-kilometer land border between Iraq and Kuwait. However, it stipulated that the maritime border should be determined through negotiations between the governments of the two countries. Iraq-Kuwait relations, which had been severed until the 2003 US-led international coalition invasion of Iraq, were subsequently re-established. Yet, due to the atmosphere of violence, conflict, and instability in Iraq, the border dispute was put on the back burner for a long time. Now, however, the relative stability achieved in the region seems to have given Iraq enough confidence and courage to bring its old claims back to the agenda. The Iraqi side had actually accepted the status quo of the maritime borders through agreements signed in 2012 and formally ratified by both countries the following year. However, a draft law passed by a two-thirds majority in the Iraqi Parliament in 2023 stated that previous agreements were invalid and that the borders needed to be redetermined. Today, the Iraqi administration has followed up on the 2023 move by bringing the issue to international platforms. This, of course, has triggered the outbreak of a new border crisis in the region. Looking back, it becomes clear that the border disputes in the Iraq-Kuwait-Saudi Arabia triangle have a history spanning more than a century. In this context, it is necessary to focus on certain prominent figures in black-and-white photographs from 1916 and 1917. The first of these is Sir Percy Cox, the British Empire's High Commissioner in Iraq. The de facto master of the Persian Gulf from 1904 to 1919, Cox not only administered the region on behalf of Great Britain but also played a critical role in determining today's borders. Another figure is the famous British agent, explorer, and traveler Gertrude Bell. Bell was the one who undertook one of the most vital roles in the formation of modern Iraq, drawing its borders and placing Sherif Hussein's son, Emir Faisal, on the Iraqi throne as "king" in 1921. Cox would retire and return to London in 1923, and Bell would commit suicide in Baghdad in 1926. A third person appearing in the photographs is Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman Al Saud, the founding king of Saudi Arabia. In the frames showing the trio of Cox, Bell, and Abdulaziz in and around Basra in 1917, there were undoubtedly lengthy conversations and negotiations about the region's future among them. Historical sources recount that during one of these meetings, Abdulaziz's expectations regarding the Kuwait-Saudi border were met by his British counterparts with a response like, "We suspect there is oil there; we will leave this area to Kuwait." The British encountered such vast oil deposits along the Mosul-Kirkuk line down to Basra—and in the Gulf's maritime areas as far as Bahrain—that King Abdulaziz's requests, such as "There must be oil in our land too; drilling should also be done within our borders," were met with deaf ears; Saudi Arabian oil was first extracted by Americans in 1938. The rest of the story is well known. Look at the maps of the Arab world: In the Iran-Iraq border tensions, in all the crises centered around Kuwait, in the Saudi Arabia-Yemen border disputes, and at the heart of many other problems, you will see the influence of deliberate and critical interventions made by the British Empire in the first half of the last century. Therefore, the current Kuwait-Iraq tension cannot be understood without including the poisonous seeds sown a hundred years ago in the equation. A small assignment for esteemed readers: After finishing the article, open a map. Find the Musandam Peninsula, which constitutes the southern end of the Persian Gulf at its outlet to the Indian Ocean, zoom in on the map, and see which country it belongs to. You will witness one of the most blatant examples of British-style absurdity.