<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="text-align: center; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;" align="center"><strong><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Traditional Arabic',serif;">The Iraqi-Kuwaiti maritime borders in Khawr Abdullah</span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Traditional Arabic',serif;">&bull; Khawr Abdullah is of great importance to Iraq.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Traditional Arabic',serif;">&bull; It is the waterway leading to the ports of Umm Qasr and Khor Al-Zubayr.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Traditional Arabic',serif;">&bull; The depth of its navigation channel allows the passage of ships with a draft of 11 meters.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Traditional Arabic',serif;">&bull; Establishing the port of Fao at the beginning of the creek will make it a strategic corridor and an important economic gateway for Iraq linking Asia with Europe.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Traditional Arabic',serif;">&bull; The United Nations demarcated the maritime borders in Khawr Abd Allah in accordance with Security Council Resolution 833.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Traditional Arabic',serif;">&bull; The United Nations adopted the principle of the middle line in the division in accordance with Article (15) of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Traditional Arabic',serif;">&bull; Article (15) stated that the principle of the existence of the historical document or other circumstances in defining the territorial sea for each of the two countries should be taken into account.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Traditional Arabic',serif;">&bull; The UN Border Demarcation Committee ignored Iraq's historical right to Khawr Abd Allah.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Traditional Arabic',serif;">&bull; Iraq is the one who dug the Khawr Abd Allah canal and installed marine buoys.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Traditional Arabic',serif;">&bull; There is no presence of the Kuwaiti side in the channel until 2003.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Traditional Arabic',serif;">&bull; The geographical and scientific conditions of the region of alluvial deposits west of Al-Faw confirm Iraq's right to the creek.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Traditional Arabic',serif;">&bull; Experts believe that considering the taluk line is the ideal solution for demarcating the waterway up to pillar 162 instead of the center line.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Traditional Arabic',serif;">&bull; That the demarcation stop at Pillar 162, where the view of Boubyan Island ends, deprived Iraq of a larger territorial water area, according to the rule of the midline.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Traditional Arabic',serif;">&bull; Because the Iraqi coast is heading towards the sea parallel to the navigational corridor of Khawr Abdullah.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Traditional Arabic',serif;">&bull; The conclusion of the agreement regulating navigation in Khor Abdullah is a complete recognition of the border demarcation decisions.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Traditional Arabic',serif;">&bull; Kuwait established a fixed platform in an area that recedes from the water at the islands.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Traditional Arabic',serif;">&bull; To adopt it as a baseline for the Kuwaiti territorial sea, and deposited a decree to that effect with the United Nations.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Traditional Arabic',serif;">&bull; This platform will be located within Iraqi waters if the demarcation takes place according to the center line rule up to 12 nautical miles, according to Security Council Resolution No. 833.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Traditional Arabic',serif;">&bull; All of this is happening while Iraq remains silent, except for a shy protest memorandum filed in 2019 against building that platform.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="text-align: justify; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: 'Traditional Arabic',serif;">&bull; What is required from Iraq now is to legislate the Iraqi regional sea law and deposit it with the United Nations. </span></p>