Manama: Kuwait’s Deputy Foreign Minister said that nothing out of the ordinary was happening on the Kuwaiti-Iraqi borders,

“The situation is normal and stable on the borders with Iraq and will remain so thanks to the vigilance of the Kuwaiti people and the keenness of the Iraqi side on respecting the sovereignty of the State of Kuwait,” Khalid Al Jarallah told the media on Sunday evening.

“Kuwait’s Speaker Marzouq Al Ghanim has discussed the issue with Iraqi Parliament Speaker Salim Al Jabouri who stated that nobody could drive a wedge between the Kuwaiti and Iraqi peoples. Such a statement indicates Iraq’s commitment to respecting Kuwait’s sovereignty,” Al Jarallah said, quoted by Kuwait News Agency (Kuna).

Al Ghanim and Al Jabouri met on Friday in Cairo where they were attending the conference of Arab parliaments.

Al Ghanim reported that Al Jabouri stressed during their meeting the commitment of Iraq to all international agreements endorsed by the country’s lawmakers.

The Kuwaiti Speaker said that the statement was highly significant in curbing attempts to sow sedition between the two neighbours.

Iraqi troops under President Saddam Hussain in August 1990 invaded Kuwait, but were ejected in February 1991.

The demarcation of the borders between the two countries was undertaken under the auspices of the United Nations which later adopted Resolution 833.

Kuwait and Iraq also signed a bilateral agreement in 2012 for the formation of a joint commission to organise navigation, guarantee the safety of Khor Abdullah, a waterway, protect the environment, maintain the inlet and handle fishing boats. The agreement was deposited at the United Nations.

However, tensions have recently flared on the Iraqi side following calls by some lawmakers to reject UN Resolution 833 and the bilateral agreement.

The MPs claimed Khor Abdullah was not included in legal or geographic terms in Resolution 833 and should belong to Iraq.

Others alleged that the government would be compromising Iraqi sovereignty by going ahead with the Khor Abdullah agreement.

Iraqi Prime Minister Dr Haider Al Abadi, in a statement on January 31, termed as “unjustified” the raising by some parties of the issues of Khor Abdullah and border demarcation with Kuwait, even though the frontiers were demarcated per UN Resolution 833.

He insisted that his country would not be dragged to malicious schemes of some entities which try to spread rumours and fabricated news to mar Iraqi-Kuwaiti relations.

Al Jarallah on Sunday pointed out that the message received by the Emir Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah from the US President Donald Trump included a renewed US commitment towards Kuwait’s security and stability as well as the UN resolution related to Kuwait and Iraq.

Al Jarallah added that he had recently met UK Minister for the Middle East Tobias Ellwood who has made a similar stance.

Ellwood expressed the UK commitment to the security and stability of Kuwait and the UN resolutions related to the situation between Kuwait and Iraq, Al Jarallah said,

Earlier on Sunday, Undersecretary of the Kuwaiti Ministry of Interior General Suleiman Al Fahad said there was not any abnormal gathering on the Kuwaiti-Iraqi border and trade movement was going on normally.

“The security situation on the border is good and all concerned sectors are doing their duties efficiently,” he told reporters.

“Events unfolding in some neighbouring countries are just domestic political conflicts with which Kuwait has nothing to do whatsoever.”

UN Resolution 833 stipulates that “through the demarcation process the Commission was not reallocating territory between Kuwait and Iraq, but it was simply carrying out the technical task necessary to demarcate for the first time the precise coordinates of the boundary set out in the ‘Agreed Minutes between the State of Kuwait and the Republic of Iraq regarding the Restoration of Friendly Relations, Recognition and Related Matters’ signed by them on 4 October 1963.”

The resolution said that the “task was carried out in the special circumstances following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait and pursuant to resolution 687 (1991) and the Secretary-General’s report for implementing paragraph three of that resolution.”