History of the Kuwait-Iraq Border Dispute

Shortly after the Iraqi invasion and occupation of Kuwait began on August 2, 1990, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein resurrected old Iraqi claims to Kuwaiti territory.  He declared that Iraq had annexed Kuwait, and that Kuwait would be known as Iraq's 19th province.  He claimed a historical justification for this attempt by saying that Kuwait was once part of Iraq.  That claim is false, but unfortunately, the allegation was repeated so frequently that some observers began to wonder whether it had any basis in truth.

At various times throughout its brief modern existence, Iraq has made two claims concerning Kuwait.  It has asserted that Kuwait was previously under Ottoman rule and that Iraq “inherited” the right to rule Kuwait from the Ottomans.  The second claim, which seemingly presupposes that the first one is false, holds that no border between Iraq and Kuwait has ever been agreed upon.

This paper examines these claims in their historical context, along with the many occasions on which Iraq itself has recognized both Kuwaiti sovereignty and the Iraq-Kuwait border.  It will show that Kuwait was never a part of Iraq, and indeed that Kuwait was independent from the ancient Ottoman Empire, from which Iraq was later carved by colonial powers.  It will further demonstrate that the Iraqi regime has a pattern of recognizing Kuwaiti sovereignty, only to later repudiate the recognition; and that the international community has recognized Kuwait's borders and sovereignty since the early part of the twentieth century.

Iraq maintains that Kuwait was merely a territory within the Ottoman vilayet (an Ottoman administrative district similar to a province or governorate) that was administered by Basra, a city in modern day Iraq.  This claim is not supported by historical evidence.  Although there were very brief periods when a ruler of Kuwait paid tribute to an Ottoman ruler, Kuwait’s independence long preceded that of Iraq’s independence from the Ottomans.  As early as 1863 the British representative to the Gulf reported that Kuwait was “practically independent despite recognizing Turkish suzerainty.”[1]  Three years later a different British officer wrote that Kuwait paid no tribute to the Ottoman authorities.[2] Kuwaiti citizens paid no taxes to the Turks, and Kuwaitis were never conscripted into the Ottoman military.[3]  And most telling, Kuwait never housed an Ottoman garrison.[4]

In 1899, Kuwait asserted its independent status by entering into an agreement with Britain.  This agreement was designed to provide Kuwait with protection against outside forces.  In return, Kuwait agreed “not to receive the agent or representative of any Power or government.”[5]  This agreement was a clear and conscious assertion of Kuwaiti sovereignty and was aimed at both Ottoman and colonial powers.

Much of Iraq’s alleged claim to Kuwait is based on the later Anglo-Ottoman Convention of 1913, an agreement signed between Britain and the Turks.  In the Convention Kuwait was named as “an autonomous qada’ [subprovince, district] of the Ottoman Empire.”[6]  These words form the basis of every Iraqi claim to Kuwait.  Iraq has declared that Kuwait’s status, as set forth in the Convention of 1913, makes it subordinate to the Ottoman authorities that were based in Iraq.  However, the Anglo-Ottoman Convention of 1913 never came into effect.  The ratification that was required for the Convention to be binding was halted by the onset of World War I.  With the end of the war, the Ottoman Empire ceased to exist and ratification of the agreement was moot.

After the war, Britain and Iraq worked under a League of Nations mandate to create a formally recognized, independent Iraq.  In order for Iraq to achieve complete independence and to be accepted into the League of Nations, it was necessary for the regime to meet various conditions.  Among these, Iraq was required to submit evidence proving that it had “well-defined frontiers.”[7]  In order to meet this stipulation the Prime Minister of Iraq, Nuri Said, sent a letter to the British High Commissioner for Iraq, Sir Francis Humphrys, on July 21, 1932.  In the letter he stated:

My dear Sir Francis:

I think your Excellency will agree that the time has now come when it is desirable to reaffirm the existing frontier between Iraq and Koweit.

I therefore request that the necessary action may be taken to obtain the agreement of the competent authority or authorities in Koweit to the following description of the existing frontier between the two countries:

From the intersection of the Wadi-el-Audja with the Batin and thence northwards along the Batin to a point just south of the latitude of Safwan; thence eastwards passing south of Safwan Wells, Jebel Sanam and Um Qasr leaving them to Iraq and so on to the junction of the Khor Zoberi with the Khor Abdulla.  The islands of Warbah, Bubiyan, Maskan, Failakah, Auhah, Kubbar, Qaru and Umm-el-Maradim appertain to Kuwait.[8]

On August 10, 1932, the ruler of Kuwait, Shaikh Ahmad, responded to the Iraqi letter, saying, “We agree to reaffirm the existing frontier between Iraq and Kuwait as described in the Iraqi Prime Minister’s letter.”[9]  Seemingly, the Iraq-Kuwait border issue was settled with this exchange of letters.  However, Iraq has since claimed that this exchange of letters does not represent a formal recognition of either Kuwait’s sovereignty or the delineation of a common border.  Iraq asserts that because the letter was signed while Iraq was under a League of Nations mandate, with Britain controlling its foreign affairs, the letter does not bind the independent Iraqi State.[10]

Throughout the course of the next several years, the relationship between Iraq and Kuwait deteriorated.  In the late 1930s, Iraq’s King Ghazi began an active campaign to incite the people of Kuwait to revolt against their chosen leaders, stating, “The Iraqi Government, as the successor to the Ottoman Government in the Wilayets of Mosul, Baghdad and Basra, considers that Kuwait should properly be incorporated into Iraq.”[11]After Ghazi’s death the subject of demarcation, or actually marking the borders, became paramount to Kuwait.  Although the border had been clearly delimited, or described, with the 1913 agreement, a 1923 memorandum between the Iraq and Kuwait British representatives, and the 1932 letters, no serious effort at demarcation had been made.  Despite the best efforts of Britain in securing Iraqi cooperation, no progress was made. 

When the Iraqi monarchy fell in a bloody coup on July 14, 1958, Abdul Karim Qasim emerged as the new leader.  Six days after Kuwait gained its formal independence 1961, Qasim renounced the validity of previous agreements and once again began to claim the Kuwaiti territory for Iraq, declaring that “Iraq and Kuwait remained one indivisible whole until 1913.  Since then the people have been fighting imperialists to get rid of it…  There exists no boundary between Iraq and Kuwait.  If anyone claims that there are boundaries then let him prove it.”[12] At the United Nations, Iraq’s representative, Adnan Pachachi, argued that Kuwait had never been more than a province of Iraq.  He declared that “Kuwait is not more than a small coastal town on the Gulf.  There is not and never has been a country or a national entity called Kuwait, never in history.”[13] Significantly, Mr. Pachachi, now an exiled member of the Iraqi opposition, has since publicly renounced the Iraqi claim and has recognized the UN-demarcated border.  On October 2, 1999, at the Middle East Institute’s Annual Conference, he declared that the future Iraqi government will need to “insure that no future disputes will arise with Kuwait, which since 1963 has been recognized by Iraq as a fully sovereign state with internationally accepted borders.”  In this climate, Iraqi forces began to amass on the border, in apparent preparation for an invasion.  The situation was stabilized through the movement of Arab forces into defensive positions within Kuwait.[14]

Later, on July 20, 1961, the Arab League, in the absence of the Iraqi delegation, unanimously voted to admit Kuwait as a member.  Inasmuch as membership in the Arab League is limited to independent Arab states by virtue of the League’s charter, the unanimous consent of the other Arab states represented a universal Arab recognition (excepting Iraq) of Kuwait’s independent and sovereign status.[15]  After Kuwait’s admission into the League, Iraq’s Baathist regime dealt with Kuwait for 30 years as a sovereign state.

In 1963, Qasim was overthrown, and Kuwait immediately moved to recognize the new regime.  Relations steadily warmed and on October 4, 1963, the Kuwaiti Prime Minister, Shaikh Sabah al-Salim al-Sabah, signed an agreement with the Prime Minister of Iraq, Maj. Gen. Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr. In the document Iraq again agreed to recognize “the independence and complete sovereignty of the State of Kuwait with its boundaries as specified in the letter of the Prime Minister of Iraq dated 21.7.1932.”[16]

After Iraq and Kuwait’s 1963 agreement was signed, it was delivered to the Treaty section of the United Nations.  It was later published in the UN’s Statement of Treaties and International Agreements Registered or Filed and Recorded with the Secretariat with an added notation stating that the treaty “came into force on 4 October 1963 on signature.”  This notation was added after the UN received a letter from Kuwait stating that “the agreement contained in the ‘Agreed Minutes’ signed between the State of Kuwait and the Republic of Iraq on 4^th October, 1963, has come into force on the date of its signature and by signature only; no other subsequent measures being needed”.[17]  In 1973, after a series of border disputes involving armed conflict, Iraq argued that the lack of ratification had rendered the treaty invalid, freeing Iraq of any legal recognition of Kuwait.  Although Iraq had been aware since 1963 that the international community recognized the treaty as valid “on signature,” it had made no attempts to alter that perception.

The impetus behind Iraq’s claims to Kuwait does not stem from historical will, but rather from Iraq’s desire to secure a deep-water port.  The major point of conflict between the two states concerns the “Kuwaiti islands of Bubiyan and Warbah that dominate the estuary leading to the southern Iraqi port of Umm Qasr.  Beginning in the early 1970s, Iraq's desire to develop a deep-water port on the Gulf led to demands that the two islands be transferred or leased to Iraq.”  Kuwait’s refusal spurred Iraq to move troops into a Kuwaiti border post in 1973.  This action prompted broad Arab condemnation, leading to Iraq’s subsequent withdrawal.[18]

From the signing of the Agreed Minutes in 1963 until 1990, Iraq ceased openly declaring that Kuwait was part of Iraq, but they did repeatedly state that the international border between Iraq and Kuwait was not defined.  In 1990, Iraq began to reassert its claim to Kuwaiti territory.  Yet, despite the Iraqi declarations questioning Kuwait’s sovereignty, Iraq has long treated Kuwait as an independent state in the international arena.  Previous to 1990, the two states enjoyed mutual diplomatic recognition, both states were members of the same international bodies, and Iraq regularly communicated with Kuwait using language that denotes a recognition of statehood.[19]

Kuwait has never been a part of Iraq, and indeed existed as an independent entity before Iraq was created by the post-WWI colonial powers.  Although it had tenuous connections to the Ottoman Empire, Kuwait had always acted as an autonomous entity.  The treaty with the British in 1899 was entered into in order to protect its autonomy from Turkish attempts at encroachment.  One of the major provisions of the treaty was the British recognition of the ruler’s sovereignty within certain borders.[20]

This is evidence that, even then, Kuwait constituted an independent legal entity.[21]

Iraq has repeatedly disavowed its spurious claims to Kuwait as evidenced in both the 1932 exchange of letters and most clearly in the Baghdad Agreed Minutes of 1963.  In that document Iraq abandoned its claims to Kuwait forever.

Additionally, the border between Iraq and Kuwait has clearly been delineated on five different occasions (1913, 1923, 1932, 1963, and 1991).  Iraq’s claim that the Iraq-Kuwait border has never been adequately delineated can not be viewed as valid.  Even if the 1913, 1923, and 1932 agreements were discounted, the 1963 agreement solidly refutes any Iraqi claim to Kuwait’s territories.

After the Gulf War, the international community moved to irrefutably reject Iraq’s claims to Kuwait and to clearly demarcate the border.  Following the conclusion of the ground war between the Coalition forces and Iraq, the United Nations adopted Security Council Resolution 687.  This resolution called upon the Secretary General to create a commission to assist Iraq and Kuwait to officially demarcate their common, international border, as agreed upon in the 1963 treaty between Iraq and Kuwait.  On May 20, 1993, the Secretary General of the United Nations released a letter stating that the UN-assigned commission had completed the demarcation of the Iraq-Kuwait Border.[22]  One week later the Security Council passed Resolution 833, affirming the UN Demarcation Commission’s work and calling upon Iraq and Kuwait to respect the “inviolability of the international boundary, as demarcated by the Commission.”[23]

This demarcation gave Iraq a better position in the Gulf, providing it with access to deeper water for its shipping needs.  This improvement for Iraq came as the result of a border shift in Iraq’s favor.  Iraq gained nearly 170 miles of coast line on the Shatt Al-Arab and 70 miles on the Gulf.  Iraq’s six main ports were intentionally given better access by the UN in order to aid Iraq and address its grievances.  On June 17, 1993, the Kuwait government sent a letter affirming the Security Council Resolution 833 and agreeing to the assigned border.[24] On November 14, 1994, following 18 months of refusals and immediately after once again threatening Kuwait through massive troop deployments on the border, Iraq’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations presented a letter from the Iraqi government containing a decree and declaration that Iraq affirmed “the sovereignty of the State of Kuwait, its territorial integrity and political independence… and [Iraq’s] respect for the inviolability of the said border.”[25]

It would appear that these actions by the UN, Kuwait, and Iraq would lay any future Iraqi claims to rest and refute the historical claims from the past.  Clearly, the Iraqi regime had resolved any ambiguity concerning both the delineation and demarcation of the border as well as the sovereign status of Kuwait.  However, only four years later, Iraq again began making bellicose statements concerning its neighbor.  In 1999 Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister, Tariq Aziz, declared that parts of Kuwait’s “land and coasts” belong to Iraq, in direct contradiction of the earlier decree that Iraq respected the “inviolability” of the Iraq-Kuwait border.[26]   Although the regime repudiated those claims within a few days, the fact that they had been asserted again is evidence that the Iraqi regime cannot be trusted to abide by its international commitments.

Kuwait has never been part of Iraq.  It was an independent political entity before Iraq was carved out of the Ottoman Empire by colonial powers at the close of World War One.  As an independent city-state, Kuwait entered into international agreements as early as the 19^th century.  Throughout the 20^th Century, Iraq has recognized Kuwaiti independence, sovereignty, and borders on several occasions.  On as many occasions, however, when it coveted its neighbor’s resources, land, or ports, Iraq has resurrected old discredited claims to justify its expansionist aggressions.  The Iraqi attempts to claim Kuwait as part of their territory are another grotesque illustration that the regime feels no compulsion to honor its international commitments.

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