Kuwait, Iraq, and the deadly coldness

Zine El Abidine Al Youssef / writer and researcher in political science

After the collapse of theOttoman Empire, its lands became spoils shared by the allies, so Iraq was Britain's share, as it had three states and became one state in 1921, which is the beginning of the emergence of the national state. However, there was a strategic problem with regard to the surroundings of the new state, which is related to the issue of borders and the disputes of neighboring countries, including Kuwait. Among other things, this paper is concerned with the most important things related to these transformations, and in the following points:

First: The reflection of the emerging political experience in Iraq on the Kuwaiti interior

One of the main manifestations of political and social influence between Iraq and Kuwait occurred after the establishment of the constitutional system in Iraq, which opened the eyes and appetite of intellectuals, merchants and some Kuwaiti notables to reproduce the constitutional and parliamentary experience in Kuwait, which was an emirate without a constitution, absolute rule by the Emir, so arose at the beginning of the twentieth century in Kuwait an active political movement known as the National Bloc known as "merchants", and was at that time affected by the British domination of the country's capabilities and affairs through an agreement Protectionism imposed in 1899 and through the 1934 Oil Exploration Agreement; and resentful that the government ignored her for not consulting in the affairs of the country. Therefore, the National Bloc began to demand the establishment of a "legislative council", as stated in the memorandum submitted to the Emir by the Bloc in late June 1938, after which discussions took place that resulted in the governor's approval of this demand. In December 1938, the Council was dissolved, its political activities were banned, and a number of 1938 leaders of the Constitutional Movement were arrested and prosecuted, and there are five families of the movement's leaders who sought refuge in Iraq and settled in Basra.

Second: The obsession with annexing Kuwait to Iraq

These concerns began to appear officially when King Ghazi began to demand the annexation of Kuwait to Iraq, and he was waving the military option to annex Kuwait, and opened Radio Al-Zohour that was directed to Kuwait, through which he broadcast his statements in which he announced his desire to do so, and there is an official document in which he ordered the Iraqi army to recover Kuwait. However, it was met with political rejection, as stated in the document dated 14 January 1939. These claims ended with his death.

This demand was renewed in the new republican system, where in 1961 Prime Minister Abdul Karim Qassim demanded in a televised statement his demand to annex Kuwait to Iraq and ended after his overthrow, but in 1963 the Iraqi authority recognized Kuwait as an independent and sovereign state.

These demands were repeated more frequently under Saddam Hussein's regime, as he invaded Kuwait in order to annex it to Iraq in 1990 and ended with a military operation led by the international coalition against Iraq, which led to Saddam's withdrawal.

Third: The dispute over the borders, which is Iraq's main concern in its relationship with Kuwait, lies in the search for a sea crossing connecting it to the Arabian Gulf, and these endeavors are always hindered by the Kuwaiti race with Iraq to win complete dominance over the joint and nearby sea ports between Kuwait and Iraq, as Kuwait has coasts of about 500 km (compared to the coasts of Iraq, which do not exceed 50) km only and owns five ports on the Arabian Gulf, these endeavors escalate the tension between Two. Even after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, these tensions were repeated, culminating in 2011 after the Kuwaiti government decided to establish the Mubarak al-Kabeer port.

History of the Iraqi-Kuwaiti controversy

The most important issues that evoke in the memory of the two countries at the popular level and the political leadership of both countries is the above-mentioned, from the political repercussions and accumulations to the demands for the annexation of Kuwait and the invasion, to the border problem between the two countries, and ending with the issue of Iraq's debts as compensation to Kuwait, which has been paid in full recently, and is considered from Kuwait's point of view to be a moral compensation rather than a material one for the psychological and social effects caused by the invasion. Despite the political transformations that swept the two countries, Kuwait continued to raise the slogan (tolerance and do not forget), and that the political and social transformations led to one result, which is that Kuwait and Iraq, despite the long period that followed the invasion and the political endeavors to bridge the gap of disagreement, there is great caution in bilateral dealings between the two countries, and it has become clear that there is no real political impact that the two countries may cause to each other because of the deep gap left by the invasion and its memory that changed the reality of Dealing at a strategic level. Today, we see deep political movement and political changes in Kuwait and Iraq. But we see a fatal coldness in dealing with it at the popular and even academic levels, and this shows the great distance between the two countries, except for communication between the political leadership, which is one of the requirements of diplomatic work, as there is no high dynamic between the two countries like any two neighboring countries that have high-level interaction, as is the case between Iraq and Iran or Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

The mutual skirmishes between Kuwait and Iraq on the land and sea borders began many years ago and caused problems that had become diplomatic issues and major crises, including the "silent" incident that occurred on 20 March 1973, which took place in the Al-Samita border area, where this was the first exchange of fire between the two countries in which victims were killed on both sides and caused the closure of the border and the escalation of the issue diplomatically.

This issue led to the dispatch of delegations to resolve it after the tension and escalation between the two parties, in which weapons were used for the first time, military entry and land was taken, and then the retreat was made.

This issue remains in the imagination of the Kuwaiti individual that there is a danger under the ashes of a hiding place in which he is afraid to blow and ignite and leave them in front of an unknown fate. As for the prevailing Iraqi narrative, it believes that Iraq has a right to Kuwait because it is a small country and suffocates Iraq's waterway, in addition to the nature of the authoritarian personality of the leaders of authoritarian regimes that impose hegemony over everything that is below it in size and influence, and this has become clear in every crisis between the two countries, as you find citizens from both sides launching campaigns of vilification and attacks to develop at the level of officials who enter the line, taking advantage of this feeling that provides them with a discourse that suits these groups in order to make them feel that they are Part of their thinking and share this fear and reverence. Therefore, you believe that populist rhetoric is high by officials and members of the House of Representatives and the nation to achieve a public gain and electoral balance that supports them to win the seats of the Council.

On the recent Iraqi-Kuwaiti debate

On April 26, 2022, Iraqi MP Alaa al-Haidari issued a press conference in which he said that Kuwait had arrested, detained and tortured Iraqi fishermen, and one of the fishermen died as a result of this act. MP al-Haidari threatened Kuwait to resort to the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Committee to be a deterrent to any aggression that results from Kuwait on Iraq.

This statement caused a stir inside Kuwait, forcing Kuwait to announce the full readiness of the Kuwaiti forces and the coast guard after they rejected these accusations issued by MP Al-Haidari.

The campaign of accusations and exchanges on social media between Kuwaitis and Iraqis began to lead to the entry of Kuwaiti MPs on the crisis line, and statements and threats began to get louder.

There is a striking issue in the speech of the exchange on the Kuwaiti side, which is the reminder that they provided assistance to Iraq, and that they wished Iraq grants and leniency, and that Iraq is ungrateful as noted from the comments in this aspect and in other comments the focus was on that Iraq is a country that has lost sovereignty, and that Iran is the one who governs it and manages its affairs!  You had to threaten the occupying Iranians of your country, not Kuwait, which provided you with aid.

There are Kuwaiti media, politicians and bloggers who organized campaigns in the media to respond to the threat of MP Al-Haidari, as the Kuwaiti political activist "Sabah Al-Huwaidi" stated that  Iraq's mentality towards Kuwait is Al-Antariat and they think that Iraq can occupy Kuwait and we say it cannot and therefore the Iraqi ambassador must be summoned and a note of protest must be submitted for what happened. In the same context, MP "Badr Al-Humaidi", a member of the Kuwaiti National Assembly, came out with a more strange statement and demanded the suspension of the Abdali border crossing with Iraq, and the work of large concrete barriers along the border with Iraq and the work of contiguous marine paints on the maritime border with Iraq, and that communication with Iraq be by air only!

The State of Kuwait is going through a tumultuous and heated political situation between the two parties of the government and the opposition deputies who forced the government to resign and began preparing for new parliamentary elections. This political atmosphere needs to be present in the popular atmosphere and adopt populist discourses that inflame the masses to say that we are there to defend you from any party that threatens your existence, and this discourse may achieve success in such cases in popular circles, as this discourse meets their desires in the case of hostile charging towards what they consider an existential opponent. Greedy.

MP Badr al-Humaidi had been nominated in the elections for the presidency of the National Assembly, and he had a few votes between him and the victory in the presidency. But President Marzouq Al-Ghanim overcame him in a statement that he would be nominated for the presidency of the National Assembly, and this requires a revolutionary speech on a specific issue. Therefore, he adopted this discourse, which is far from working with rational diplomatic contexts and norms and far from implausible proposals.

Iraqi Foreign Ministry responded that there is no security threat between Kuwait and Iraq, but the position of the Iraqi Foreign Ministry met with a ridicule campaign in social media in Kuwait, where there was talk of remembering the days when Saddam reassured Kuwait and then invaded them!

The October 2021 Iraqi elections produced MPs looking for any issue in order to prove their presence to their bases that embrace them, and to form clientelist networks, especially after the cessation of employment and the deterioration of the economic situation in Iraq, as they have been updating opportunities to take populist steps taking advantage of the feelings of ordinary citizens loaded with the memory of the media shipment of the former authority against Kuwait. That is why they supported the speech of MP Alaa al-Haidari, who waved a military body that is under the command of the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Therefore, the strangeness is that the MP waved it while he is in this responsible position, shows that the mentality of MPs anywhere is focused on what is black in their eyes and they do not look at the state and its relations with neighboring countries.

Who is responsible for finding solutions?

This implicit hostility, which surfaces from time to time with campaigns such as these, is the responsibility of the cultural departments and attachés in the Kuwaiti and Iraqi embassies in both countries, because they must raise the level of dialogue and understanding and increase activities between the two countries at the grassroots level through civil society organizations and youth and cultural activities so that there is direct frankness that does not accept courtesy and coldness until we witness a complete closure of this file of hostility.

It must be emphasized to refute the issue of Kuwait's subordination to Iraq because the modern nation-state was established in 1921 with this political planning, and Kuwait is not one of them, because the methods on this issue are very sensitive and have an impact on the future of relations between the two countries, and because there are generations who are raised on the culture of equal and opposite, and when they reach the source of the decision, they will reflect the culture they carried.

Some political voices that rise in every crisis to deepen the social and cultural rift between the two countries with pivotal goals that seek to throw a single political system and sectarian alignments to pull the rug out of the state with eternal rivalry and turn it into frontal rivalries, and this is what happens in most countries where there is sectarian and ethnic pluralism. Therefore, Iraq and its interests must be in the eyes of decision-makers, and we must avoid pivotal alignment that harms the interests of our country and its relations with all neighboring countries without exception.