In Algiers, on 6 March 1975, on the margins of the OPEC summit, Iran’s Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and Iraq’s Vice President Saddam Hussein agree, through the mediation of Algerian President Houari Boumédiène, on the Joint Iranian-Iraqi Communiqué (the Algiers Agreement). The communiqué is later registered in the UNTS together with the 13 June 1975 Treaty concerning the State frontier and neighbourly relations (No. 14903, vol. 1017).

In accordance with territorial integrity, frontier inviolability and non-interference in internal affairs, the parties decide: (1) definitive demarcation of their land frontiers on the basis of the Constantinople Protocol of 1913 and the minutes of the 1914 Frontier Delimitation Commission; (2) delimitation of their river frontiers along the thalweg (the median line of the main navigable channel at the lowest navigable level) in the Shatt al-Arab / Arvand Rud; (3) restoration of mutual security and trust along the entire common frontier, with strict control against subversive infiltration from either side.

Point 4 of the communiqué treats these provisions as indivisible elements of an overall settlement: a breach of any component would be incompatible with the spirit of the Algiers Agreement. A mixed commission is to implement the decisions; the Iranian and Iraqi foreign ministers, with Algeria, are to follow up on the ground.

On 17 March 1975 the Tehran Protocol sets up technical committees; on 13 June 1975 in Baghdad, Abbas-Ali Khalatbary and Saadoun Hammadi sign the Treaty with protocols on the river frontier, land redemarcation and frontier security, in the presence of Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Formal delimitation is recorded on 26 December 1975.

Iran ends support for the Kurdish rebellion in Iraq; Iraq accepts the thalweg on the Shatt al-Arab, abandoning claims based on the 1937 treaty. On 17 September 1980 Iraq repudiates the agreement; the 22 September 1980 invasion opens the Iran–Iraq War. After 1988 and especially after 2003, the 1975 delimitation remains the de jure reference (including under Security Council Resolution 619).

The joint communiqué of 6 March 1975 in Algiers remains the political foundation of the 1975 Iran–Iraq frontier package, developed in the June–December treaty and protocols.

Image: Algiers meeting, 1975; Wikimedia Commons. Cropped to 16:9.

Source consulted: 1975 Algiers Agreement. Treaty text: Joint Iranian-Iraqi Communiqué, Algiers, 6 March 1975 (UNTS 1017, I-14903).