‘Progress on Maritime Border With Iraq’

Kuwait Shies Away From Normalization With Zionists

Date: 19 February 2023 - 21:25

News ID: ۱۱۲۵۴۹

KUWAIT (Reuters) – Kuwait and Iraq will hold a round of legal and technical talks as they look to bring an end to a maritime border dispute, which if resolved would spur economic development between the states, Kuwait’s foreign minister says.
The land border between the two was demarcated by the United Nations in 1993 after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, but it did not cover the length of their maritime boundaries, and this was left for the two oil producers to resolve.
Sheikh Salem Abdullah al-Jaber al-Sabah said the two sides would hold talks on Sunday and he was hopeful of progress.
“It’s very high priority for my government and we are working with Iraq to finalize the demarcation of that maritime border,” al-Sabah said in an interview at the Munich Security Conference. He said their legal and technical teams were meeting in search of a deal. “We are moving ahead.”
A deal could open the door to closer cooperation, from the construction of ports, management of border oil fields, and the general ease of trade and transport between the two states. Al-Sabah held talks with Iraq Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani in Munich on Friday.
Kuwait is often seen as a mediating power in the region and has always been a supporter of the Palestinian cause. It has shied away from joining Persian Gulf Arab neighbors, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, in formalizing relations with the Zionist regime.
Asked whether that position could change, al-Sabah said the situation between the occupying regime and the Palestinians was not getting better. He said the priorities were for the Palestinians to have a homeland and for there to be a so-called two-state solution.
“The first Arab-Israeli peace deal was in 1979, more than 40 years ago and what has come of that? The Abraham Accords were done two years ago and what has come of that? The situation for the Palestinians is still as dire as it was ever before,” he told Reuters.
“I don’t see how the Abraham Accords are bringing closer a two-state solution,” he added, referring to a raft of agreements between the Zionist regime and Arab states in recent years.