Iraqi Militants Threaten Kuwaiti Port Development

Kuwait is seeking to construct the Great Mubarak Port on its Bubyan Island on the Khor Abdullah inlet at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, with the new facility incorporating as many as 60 seaside piers.

Iraqi tribes have indicated their opposition to the project and threatened using force to halt the construction of Mubarak Port.

According to al-Hayah, the Basra Notables Council in southern Iraq has already sponsored a sit-in opposing the development, during which it threatened the use of force to stop construction of the project "if the Iraqi Government is not able to do so and if the border violations and the attacks on the fishermen in the adjacent area of the al-Faw (peninsula) do not stop.”

Kazim al Unayzan, head of the Basra Notables Council and the tribal chief of al-Katarinah tribes, told reporters that "the sit-in is the last message to the Iraqi government, and in case it does not confront these violations, then the tribes will try to stop them by force," adding, "The sit-in, in which dozens of tribal chiefs and notables took part, has been sponsored by the council to protest the persistence of some neighboring countries, particularly Kuwait, in the violations against Iraq."

By. Charles Kennedy, Deputy Editor OilPrice.com