Page 397 - The Arabian Gulf States_Neat

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POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT IN KUWAIT 333
!
Iraqi President, Ahmad al-Bakr, who was then acting in his capacity ;
as a Prime Minister of the new Ba’thist Government of Iraq.1
!
The latter Agreed Minutes, issued at the end of an official visit to
Iraq by the Kuwaiti Prime Minister, constituted, at the time, a basis
for Iraqi recognition of Kuwait’s independence. But the
significance of the said document lies in the fact that it confirmed
Iraq’s recognition of the boundaries of Kuwait, as defined in the
Iraq-Kuwait Exchange of Letters of 1932. Accordingly, the relevant
paragraph in the 1963 concord states: “(1) The Republic of Iraq
recognises the independence and complete sovereignty of the State
of Kuwait, in accordance with the definition of its boundaries
contained in the letter, dated 21 July 1932, of the Prime Minister of
Iraq and the reply to the said letter, dated 10 August 1932, of the
Ruler of Kuwait”.2 The 1932 Agreement which defines the
Kuwait-Iraq boundaries, expressly provides that the islands of
Bubiyan and Warbah belong to Kuwait.
The Iraqi Government does not seem to give much importance to
the 1963 concord between Iraq and Kuwait, which it does not .
consider as an internationally binding agreement. From Iraq’s
view-point, the 1963 concord amounted to a recognition by Iraq of
Kuwait’s independence but not a recognition of Kuwait’s present
boundaries with Iraq, which have not yet been agreed upon or [
demarcated. It would seem that Iraq regards her recognition of
Kuwait in 1963 and the recognition of Kuwait’s boundaries as two ;
:
(e) During the years 1964, 1965, 1967 and 1968 a series of meetings were held
between Iraqi and Kuwaiti authorities with the aim of solving the technical
issues connected with the demarcation of their boundaries, but no useful results
were achieved.
(f) On 26 February 1973 a Kuwaiti delegation, headed by the Kuwaiti
Foreign Minister, visited Iraq. During the discussions held between the two .
parties on their boundary problem, the Iraqis renewed their claim to the islands
of Warbah and Bubiyan and the coastal area opposite to them. The Kuwaiti
delegation rejected the claim but agreed that further discussions on the problem !.
should be continued in the near future. The Kuwaiti delegation returned to
Kuwait on 1 March, on the understanding that an Iraqi delegation, headed by the
Foreign Minister of Iraq, would visit Kuwait during the same month.
However on 20 March, the friendly atmosphere of negotiations between :
Kuwait and Iraq on the demarcation of their boundaries received a heavy blow ;
as a result of Iraqi military action on the Kuwaiti police post of al-Samtah. I*:
(The above information containing the historical records of the Kuwait-Iraq :
border dispute is based on the archives of the Kuwaiti Ministry of Foreign
Affairs).
1. See Chapter 15, and p. 252 above. And see Appendix No. 15.
2. See Appendix No. 14. The Agreed Minutes of 1963 was registered by the
Secretary General of the United Nations in the United Nations Treaty Series on
10 January 1964. It appears in U.N.T.S. Vol. 485, p. 321 (1964).