The construction of a new Kuwaiti port has raised tensions with Iraq and could spark a new conflict between the two former foes, writes Salah Nasrawi Iraq and Kuwait are locked in a bitter wrangle over a port that the tiny Gulf emirate is building, with Baghdad arguing that this violates the two countries' UN- demarcated border and encroaches on its territorial waters. Tensions over the construction of the Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port worsened when Kuwait seized the assets of Iraq's national airline in Jordan last month, the latest development in a row between the two neighbouring countries over war reparations. The new disputes have deepened the rivalry between Iraq and Kuwait that dates to former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and threatens to plunge the two states into a new high-stakes game. Kuwaiti officials laid the foundation stone for the new port on the Arab Gulf last month, and South Korean firm Hyundai promptly started the construction work with completion due in 2016. The three-phase project will include container docks, deeper-water harbours, a free-trade zone, rail network and a resort. Kuwait says the $410 million project meets its needs for an efficient and strategic port that will make Kuwait a financial and trade centre in the region. It also says that it is ready to provide guarantees that the port would not affect Iraq. The Iraqis maintain that the Kuwaiti port -- on Boubyan Island on the Khor Abdullah waterway, which is the only strategic access to the sea for Iraq -- would limit the access of ships to Iraqi ports because the Kuwaiti port would leave only a narrow lane for Iraq-bound ships. Iraq has itself been developing plans for a giant new port on the Al-Faw Peninsula, little more than a kilometre from the site of the new Kuwaiti shipping centre. The Al-Faw project has for long been an ambitious Iraqi project, aiming to revitalise trade and turn the country into an international economic gateway. Construction of the Iraqi port has been delayed by the country's prolonged period of political deadlock since the 2003 US-led invasion, and plans are now even more in doubt after Kuwait began building its new port. This has made Iraqis start to question the logic and underlying intentions of the Kuwaiti move. For many, there is no economic justification for the building of the new Kuwaiti port, and they see it as a hostile act against their war-battered country. Iraqis argue that Kuwait has at least three major ports already, Shwaikh, Shuaiba and Doha, all in open waters and all able to be expanded to accommodate trade growth. Therefore, they say, the country does not need a further port. They say that their southern neighbour has nearly 500 kilometres of coastline, while Iraq has only 58 kilometres, mostly in shallow waters that are not suitable for the passage of large vessels. Therefore, many Iraqis have wondered why Kuwait needs a new port, particularly one so close to the already limited Iraqi coastline and in proximity to the newly planned Iraqi project. A key question is why Kuwait is spending millions of dollars on developing an island that is far from its mainland, is only home to military outposts and is covered by the tide for half of the day, when the country could develop other facilities elsewhere. As a result, the Iraqi government is claiming that the building of the Kuwaiti port is a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 833, issued after the 1991 Gulf War and urging the two states to respect their UN-demarcated border, including territorial waters. Iraqi Minister of Transport Hadi Al-Amiri has warned that if Kuwait continues to build the port, Iraq will no longer be bound by the Resolution. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki has also set up an ad hoc committee to negotiate with Kuwait over the port's construction. Relations between Baghdad and Kuwait received a further setback after Kuwait's freezing of more than $1.5 million in assets of Iraqi Airways in Jordan last month. The Iraqi government said that Kuwait's behaviour would cause further complications in relations between the two countries. Last year, authorities in Britain stopped an Iraqi airplane coming from Baghdad and arrested the airline's director because of a Kuwaiti law suit over the assets. Baghdad and Kuwait have been locked in a long- running dispute over billions of dollars in reparations from Iraq, including some $1.2 billion related to aircraft and parts seized during Saddam's invasion of Kuwait. The Kuwaiti steps have touched off anti-Kuwait sentiment among all segments of Iraqi society, cutting across the political, ethnic and sectarian divide. Iraqi officials have depicted the Kuwaiti port project as part of a conspiracy to undermine Iraq and negatively affect efforts to rebuild the country after decades of wars and sanctions What haunts many Iraqis is the belief that Kuwait is taking advantage of the instability and political turmoil that followed the US-led invasion and is conspiring to keep it weak. Some Iraqis have called for retaliation as a result, and the leaders of the Shia Al-Mahdi Army militia in Iraq have even warned that the group might send fighters to stop Kuwait from building the port. By turning up the heat on Kuwait, the Iraqis are sending a message to their smaller neighbour that the issue is inextricably linked to Iraqi self-respect and national interests. Perhaps most critically, the disputes have resurrected old hostilities and grievances with Kuwait, widely believed to have been behind Saddam's invasion of the emirate. Many Iraqis claim that Kuwait is in any case simply a "natural part" of Iraq, carved off as a result of British colonialism, a notion used by Saddam to justify his invasion of Kuwait. After the Iraqi invasion, Kuwait was annexed and claimed as Iraq's 19th province. Two of Iraq's rulers before Saddam, King Ghazi and president Abdel-Karim Qassim, also maintained a similar stance. Such Iraqis argue that Kuwait was formerly part of the Ottoman province of Basra, and that although its ruling dynasty, the Al-Sabah family, concluded a protectorate agreement in 1899 that assigned responsibility for its foreign affairs to Britain, this did not mean that the area seceded from the then Ottoman Empire. The Iraqi argument goes on to say that after signing the Anglo-Ottoman Convention of 1913, the United Kingdom split Kuwait from the Ottoman territories into a separate sheikhdom in order to thwart German attempts to find an outlet on the Gulf for the planned Berlin-Baghdad-Basra railway. For this reason, such Iraqis say, Kuwait's borders with the rest of Basra province were never clearly defined or mutually agreed upon. Kuwaitis, on the other hand, haunted by Iraqi claims that Kuwait belongs to Iraq, challenge this version of history, saying that their country has never been part of Iraq. Kuwaiti officials have dismissed the recent rows between the two countries as being the result of efforts by Saddam loyalists or pro-Iran Shia groups to thwart efforts to resolve longstanding disputes and improve relations. Kuwait is confident that Iraq's new rulers are not in a position to use force to resolve the new disputes in the way that Saddam did when he invaded Kuwait after accusing it of pumping oil from disputed fields in excess of OPEC quotas and thereby undermining Iraq's economy. They are also optimistic that the United States, which stations thousands of troops in Kuwait as part of a joint defense agreement, will thwart any possible Iraqi hostility. Thus far, the dispute has been confined to rhetoric. But with tensions rising, there are increasing fears that things could escalate beyond that.
