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Iraq, Kuwait sign protocol on joint waterway

KUWAIT CITY — Iraq and Kuwait have signed a protocol outlining how their vessels patrol and interact in a joint waterway between their shores in the Persian Gulf, the U.S. Navy said Tuesday.

A statement from the 5th Fleet said the document was signed Nov. 11 in a Kuwaiti naval base. U.S. Vice Adm. Bill Gortney attended the ceremony.

Gortney said it was the “first military-to-military protocol” between Iraq and a neighboring country, and a “historic day” for both navies.

Iraq’s coastline is less than 60 miles long and its fledgling navy has about two dozen vessels based in Umm Qasr, Iraq’s main commercial and only sea port.

The area is vital because Iraq’s oil pipelines extend out from Umm Qasr to the terminal platforms in the sea. A tiny waterway separates the Iraqi shore from the Kuwaiti island of Bubiyan and mainland Kuwait.

The waterway is part of the border demarcation carried out by the United Nations after the 1991 U.S.-led Gulf War that liberated Kuwait from a seven-month Iraqi occupation under Saddam Hussein.

But for years, there were border shootings and incursions and a U.N. mission patrolled the waters until the 2003 invasion of Iraq that toppled Saddam. Kuwait was the launch pad for the invasion and ties have resumed with Baghdad since.

The U.S. navy statement said Iraq’s Navy chief, Adm. Muhammad Jawad Kadham, and his Kuwaiti counterpart, Maj. Gen. Ahmad Yusef Al-Mulla, signed the protocol.

The document obliges both nations to report any criminal activity in the area, including smuggling and fishing, and describes a detailed grid in which Kuwaiti and Iraqi vessels operate.