Iraq is losing Shatt Al-Arab to Iran
Erosion at the right (Iraqi) coast of Shatt Al-Arab, over a distance of 6.5 km, with an average of 3.5 m, engenders losses for Iraq of about 100 donam per year to Iran, as the Thalweg Line is moving toward the Iraqi lands. Shatt Al-Arab waterway is the only passage that leads ships to the Iraqi ports. If the situation remains like this, Iraqi oil ports (Al-Basra and Khor Al-Amia) will one day become in the Iranian side, and by then, Iraq will have no naval entry to the sea.
UPDDATE: See also: Iraq to use Ahmadinejad visit to settle old issues | Special Coverage | Reuters:
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq wants to use a landmark visit by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday to resolve long-running disputes, including defining their common border, Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi said on Saturday.
The dispute over the border, which centered on the strategic Shatt al-Arab waterway, triggered an eight-year war between the neighbors in the 1980s that killed more than a million people.
“The two countries were at war for more than eight years and this has left us with lots of problems that we have to work on solving,” Abdul-Mahdi told Reuters on the eve of Ahmadinejad’s two-day visit to Iraq.
Read in full: Iraq to use Ahmadinejad visit to settle old issues | Special Coverage | Reuters
Basra, Mar 2, (VOI) – Basri elites agree that the visit of the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to Baghdad, should be exploited to solve border suspended issues, between Iraq and the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI). Ahmadinejad has started a state visit to Iraq on Sunday, which is the first of an Iranian President since the Islamic Revolution in Iran, 1979.
Shatt Al-Arab waterway is considered an essential parameter of sustaining the economy of Iraq, as it is the only naval passage for ships to reach Basra ports; in addition that Shatt Al-Arab offers irrigation water for palm trees farms on the Iraqi side of its coasts.
At Al-Qorna city, 400 km south of Baghdad, the two rivers, Tigris and Euphrates, merge to form Shatt Al-Arab waterway that flows partially within the Iraqi territories, but the greater and most important part of the river shares a coastline with Iraq and Iran.
Each year, and according to Iraqi governmental sources, Iraq loses 100 donam (1 donam = 1000 squared meters) to the Iranian side. The deviation in the runway of Shatt Al-Arab waterway changes the location of the naval border line (Thalweg Line) for the favor of IRI.
Basim Al-Mousawi, member of Basra Provincial Council, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI) “Iraqi cabinets, since the fall of the former regime in 2003, and until today, ignored the Iranian violations on the borders of Iraq, and they practically did not try to put mutual procedures to solve border problems with IRI.”
He added “The delay in executing an agreement with IRI to identify the naval borders in Shatt Al-Arab, engendered subsequent border troubles, especially after the freeze of Algiers Accord of 1975.”
On March 6, 1975, with the mediation of the former Algerian President Houari Boumedienne, Iraq – represented by the Vice President (at that time) Saddam Hussein and Iran – represented by the Shah Mohammed Ridha Pahlavi, signed in Algeria the Algiers Accord. By executing that accord, Iran officially agreed with Iraq to have part of Shatt Al-Arab under Iranian sovereignty, according to the Thalweg Line (meaning the median course of the Shatt Al-Arab waterway).
“Freezing Algiers Accord led to Iranian violations in locating the Thalweg naval border line, mitigating smuggling processes to Iraq from Iran, under the supervision of the Iranian border authorities; in addition to that Iranian offensive acts against our border forces and naval police,” Al-Mousawi said.
The Shiite official said “Naval borders in Shatt Al-Arab should be one of the priorities of the Iraqi federal government, because this issue can create future troubles for Iraq, if the course remains as it is now.”
Hatam Abdul-Ameer, an independent Basri politician, told VOI “Iraqi government should activate the negotiations with IRI regarding border issues, especially Shatt Al-Arab, during the visit of Ahmadinejad to Baghdad (capital city of Iraq), because this case jeopardizes the future of the Iraqi – Iranian relations.”
“Discussing border issues on high levels will help both Iraq and Iran to solve many problems and disputes in this respect, and will mitigate the process of reaching satisfactory results for both sides,” Abdul-Ameer explained.
He continued saying “Iranian public diplomacy efforts concentrate on the continuous changes in the runway of Shatt Al-Arab, and they try to portray the Iraqi naval borders as unknown,” asserting “There are Iranian attempts to market a new name of Shatt Al-Arab ‘Arvan Rud in Persian;’ a matter that mirror the Iranian intentions to dominate all the waterway, and then controlling Iraqi commercial and oil ports.”
From his side, Saad Al-Khalidi, a Basri NGO activist, sees “There is a tangible improvement in the Iraqi-Iranian relations, represented by the Iranian official delegations and figures that visit Iraq, and this outweighs that Iran will make an initiative to solve the issue of Shatt Al-Arab.”
Al-Khalidi said that keeping border problems suspended, without reaching serious solutions, will negatively affect both economic and security circumstances in Basra, and Iraq in general.
“The visit of the Iranian President comes after long decades of discontinuity, and it renders the current strong relations between Iraq and Iran,” explaining “I think that solving border issues, under these relations, will prove the good Iranian intentions to establish reinforced relations with Iraq, on the basis of respecting Iraqi sovereignty.”
Naval commander, Ali Hussein, revealed “Erosion at the right (Iraqi) coast of Shatt Al-Arab, over a distance of 6.5 km, with an average of 3.5 m, engenders losses for Iraq of about 100 donam per year to Iran, as the Thalweg Line is moving toward the Iraqi lands,” asserting “Shatt Al-Arab waterway is the only passage that leads ships to the Iraqi ports.”
The sailor stressed “If the situation remains like this, Iraqi oil ports (Al-Basra and Khor Al-Amia) will one day become in the Iranian side, and by then, Iraq will have no naval entry to the sea.
Indexed under: Algiers Accord, Aswat Al Iraq Features, Early Warning, Features, Follow Up, Iran, Iraq
To Give Detailed Comment We Need Information About The algier agreement In respect of shatt al arab and
the Commen bureau Of Coordination And Information about this Bureau performance until The Iraq-Iran War
in september 80
It Is Not Correct That Iraq Is Loosing Land Because Of The Deviation Of The runway of shatt alarab simply Because The Talweg Is Fixed by The Agreement In 1975 And Both Parties Have to Carry Out dredging and Take action To Keep that.so The Talweg is Fixed And Not flexable