Iraq says no security threat with Kuwait

Media reports about a security threat between Iraq and Kuwait are “groundless,” the Iraqi embassy in Kuwait insisted yesterday. “No truth in what is was recently reported about the existence of security threats between Kuwait and Iraq,” the embassy said on Twitter.

Calling for “caution with news sources,” the embassy statement added a warning to Kuwait about “mixing political agendas.” It stressed that ties between the two countries are “important and strong.”

Parliamentary level discussions between the two countries have taken place in recent weeks over the arrest of Iraqi fishermen in the Khor Abdullah border area. Last month, two Kuwaiti parliamentarians called for the Iraqi ambassador to be summoned in protest at “threatening” statements by an Iraqi MP.

Alaa Al-Haydar had urged Baghdad to send the Shia Popular Mobilisation Forces to secure fishermen in Khor Abdullah. In response, the media reported that Kuwait had instructed its Coastguard to remain on “high alert”.

In 2013, Iraq and Kuwait signed a border agreement regulating maritime navigation in Khor Abdullah: the islands of Bubiyan and Warba came under Kuwait, and the Faw peninsula is in Iraq, extending into Iraqi territory and forming Khor Al-Zubair, where the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr is located.

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