Iraq court delays ruling on Khor Abdullah treaty challenge
Shafaq News/ Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court on Wednesday postponed its ruling on legal appeals filed by Iraq’s President Abdullatif Rashid and Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, who are seeking to reverse a landmark decision that invalidated the 2013 Khor Abdullah maritime agreement with Kuwait.
The court rescheduled its decision to June 22, 2025, extending a high-profile legal battle over Iraq’s commitment to a key international treaty.
In September 2023, the court declared the parliamentary ratification of the Khor Abdullah agreement unconstitutional, sparking diplomatic tensions and prompting President Rashid and PM al-Sudani to file separate petitions urging the court to reconsider.
A source familiar with the case told Shafaq News the appeals demand the court overturn its previous ruling and reinstate Law No. 42 of 2013, which ratified the agreement governing maritime navigation between Iraq and Kuwait.
Raed al-Maliki, a member of parliament, welcomed the delay. “The postponement is better than a ruling that might favor the government,” he said in a Facebook post, calling for “greater public and media mobilization to expand the circle of pressure in support of the court’s position.”
The Khor Abdullah agreement, signed in 2012 and ratified by Iraq in 2013, aimed to regulate navigation in the strategically sensitive waterway shared by both nations. The treaty became a point of contention after the court ruled that the ratification process violated constitutional procedures.
In his appeal, Rashid argued that the court's ruling undermined Iraq’s obligations under international law, citing Article 8 of the Iraqi Constitution, which commits the country to honor treaties and maintain good neighborly relations.
Al-Sudani echoed that view in his filing, referencing the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. He warned that dismissing the agreement would harm Iraq’s international credibility and violate the principle that internal laws cannot justify noncompliance with international commitments.
