NEW YORK: Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) foreign ministers have called on Iraq to take "serious and urgent" steps to deal with the negative developments on the Khor Abdullah maritime agreement, signed with Kuwait, after an Iraqi court's "inaccurate" ruling on the issue. This came in a statement after a GCC committee meeting held at the Omani permanent delegation's headquarters at the United Nations in New York late Sunday.

During the meeting, Kuwait’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Salem Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah informed the attendees on the latest development on the Khor Abdullah situation. The statement affirmed that the current development with Iraq "did not serve the relations between the GCC countries and was against charters, treaties and international agreements, including UNSC resolution 833".

The Iraqi federal court decision on Sept 4 included "inaccurate and out of context historical rationale" regarding the agreement signed between Iraq and Kuwait in 2012 and ratified by the Iraqi side in 2013 – which regulates navigation at Khor Abdullah - and deposited with the UN. Last Friday, Kuwait handed Iraq a protest note over the ruling by the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court, which rescinded the agreement on maritime navigation at Khor Abdullah. - KUNA