The Saudi Arabian–Iraqi neutral zone was an area of on the border between

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the Ara ...

and

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

within which the border between the two countries had not been settled. The neutral zone came into existence following the

Uqair Protocol of 1922 The Uqair Protocol or Uqair Convention was an agreement at Uqair on 2 December 1922 that defined the boundaries between Mandatory Iraq, the Sultanate of Nejd and Sheikhdom of Kuwait. It was imposed by Percy Cox, the British High Commissioner to Ir ...

which defined the border between Iraq and the

Sultanate of Nejd The Sultanate of Nejd ( ar, سلطنة نجد, ') was the third iteration of the Third Saudi State, from 1921 to 1926. It was a monarchy led by the House of Saud. This version of the Third Saudi State was created when Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, Emi ...

(Saudi Arabia's predecessor state). An agreement to partition the neutral zone was reached by Iraqi and Saudi representatives on 26 December 1981, and approved by the Iraqi National Assembly on 28 January 1982. The actual division of the territory was made an unknown time after the agreement was reached, 30 July 1982 at the latest, but the border change was not officially filed with the United Nations until June 1991.

History

The Treaty of Muhammarah (

Khorramshahr Khorramshahr ( fa, خرمشهر , also romanized as ''Khurramshahr'', ar, المحمرة, romanized as ''Al-Muhammerah'') is a city and capital of Khorramshahr County, Khuzestan Province, Iran. At the 2016 census, its population was 170,976, ...

), 5 May 1922, forestalled the imminent conflict between the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

, which held the mandate for Iraq, and the Kingdom of Nejd, which later became Saudi Arabia (when combined with the

Kingdom of Hejaz The Hashemite Kingdom of Hejaz ( ar, المملكة الحجازية الهاشمية, ''Al-Mamlakah al-Ḥijāziyyah Al-Hāshimiyyah'') was a state in the Hejaz region in the Middle East that included the western portion of the Arabian Penins ...

). It was signed by Prince Ahmed bin Abdullah on behalf of Abdulaziz Ibn Saud, King of Najd, who did not ratify the treaty. The treaty specifically avoided defining boundaries. Following further negotiations, the Protocol of Uqair (Uqayr), 2 December 1922, defined most of the borders between them and created the neutral zone. The protocol was ratified by Abdulaziz. No military or permanent buildings were to be built in or near the neutral zone and the nomads of both countries were to have unimpeded access to its pastures and wells. Administrative division of the zone was achieved in 1975, and a border treaty concluded in 1981. For unknown reasons, the treaty was not filed with the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...

and nobody outside Iraq and Saudi Arabia was notified of the change or shown maps with details of the new boundary. As the

Persian Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a Coalition of the Gulf War, 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Ba'athist Iraq, ...

approached in early 1991, Iraq cancelled all international agreements with Saudi Arabia since 1968. Saudi Arabia responded by registering all previous boundary agreements negotiated with Iraq at the United Nations in June 1991. That ended the legal existence of the Saudi Arabian–Iraqi neutral zone. Most official maps no longer show the diamond-shaped neutral zone but rather draw the border line approximately through the centre of the territory. For example, the United States Office of the Geographer regarded the area as having only an approximate boundary rather than a precise one. The Saudi Arabian–Iraqi neutral zone formerly had the

ISO 3166-1 ISO 3166-1 (''Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions – Part 1: Country codes'') is a standard defining codes for the names of countries, dependent territories, and special areas of geographical interest. It ...

codes NT and NTZ. The codes were discontinued in 1993. The

FIPS 10-4 The FIPS 10-4 standard, ''Countries, Dependencies, Areas of Special Sovereignty, and Their Principal Administrative Divisions'', was a list of two-letter country codes that were used by the U.S. Government for geographical data processing in many ...

code for the Saudi Arabian–Iraqi neutral zone was IY; that code was deleted in 1992.

References

External links

The Straight Dope on the Neutral Zone

Arabian Boundary Disputes

International Boundary Study No. 111

International Frontier Treaty Between Saudi Arabia and Iraq splitting the Neutral Zone, 2 July 1975
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saudi-Iraqi Neutral Zone 20th century in Saudi Arabia 20th century in Iraq Disputed territories in the Persian Gulf Territorial disputes of Saudi Arabia Territorial disputes of Iraq Iraq–Saudi Arabia border Iraq–Saudi Arabia relations 1922 establishments in Asia Demilitarized zones 1981 disestablishments in Asia

History

See also

References

External links