IRAQI COURT RULES NAVIGATION PACT UNCONSTITUTIONAL
In a “disturbing and worrying” development that comes two months after the outbreak of the ‘Durrah Gas Field’ crisis, which the Iranian side claims to have rights to “along with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia ” the Federal Court in Iraq issued on Monday, a ruling that the House of Representatives ratification law is unconstitutional about the Iraqi agreement on regulating maritime navigation in Khor Abdullah between Iraq and Kuwait, signed in 2013, reports Al-Seyassah daily.
The Iraqi News Agency quoted the court as saying: It “decided in its session held yesterday (in the case No. 105 and consolidated 194 / Federal / 2023) that the law ratifying the agreement between the government of the Republic of Iraq and the government of the State of Kuwait regarding the regulation of maritime navigation in Khor is unconstitutional.” The agency went on to say, “The court issued its decision in violation of the provisions of Article (61/Fourth) of the Iraqi Constitution, which stipulates, “The process of ratifying international treaties and agreements shall be regulated by a law enacted by a two-thirds majority of the members of the House of Representatives.” The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is mum until this article went into publication and has not issued any comment and so did the legal sources.
Of the seriousness of the latest development, the sources pointed out that “the court’s decision regarding the invalidation of the ratification of the maritime navigation agreement in Khor Abdullah, and its unconstitutionality, came for “procedural” reasons, not substantive ones related to the content of the agreement, as it was issued in violation of the rules specified by Article (61) of the Iraqi Constitution in dealing with international agreements and treaties”.
Within this team, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and its former chairman, Representative Dr. Abdul Karim Al-Kandari, described the ruling as having “no value at the international level,” noting that “the Security Council’s decisions are decisive in this regarding our borders, but it will affect the remaining non-demarcated borders, specifically the maritime mark 162”. Al-Kandari added, “the repudiation of the border agreement that came as a result of the Security Council resolution after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait indicates bad intentions on the part of the Iraqi party that must be confronted firmly by the Kuwaiti government, the Foreign Ministry, and the Kuwaiti parliament.”
He added: “His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmed Al-Nawaf should ask his Iraqi counterpart to resubmit the agreement, which he ratified in Baghdad on November 25, 2013 in implementation of Security Council Resolution No. (833) and which was invalidated by the Federal Court, to the Iraqi parliament to ratify it again if Iraq’s intentions are sound towards us.” For his part, MP Badr Al-Mulla said: “Renouncing the border agreement between Kuwait and Iraq under any means requires a clear reaction from the Kuwaiti government, specifically from the Kuwaiti Ministry of Foreign Affairs.” He said on his X account (formerly Twitter) “I will begin by asking parliamentary questions to demand Kuwait’s loans and their interest that have not yet been paid by Iraq to Kuwait and which were (loans) taken before the Iraqi invasion.”
Source- Arab Times.
