Geography (Iraq)
================


     Total area:
         436,245 km2
     Land area:
         435,292 km2 (est.)
     Comparative area:
         slightly more than twice the size of Idaho
     Land boundaries:
         3,576 km; Iran 1,458 km, Jordan 134 km, Kuwait 240 km, Saudi Arabia 808 km,
         Syria 605 km, Turkey 331 km
     Coastline:
         58 km
     Maritime claims:
       Continental shelf:
         not specific
       Territorial sea:
         12 nm
     Disputes:
         Iran and Iraq restored diplomatic relations in 1990 but are still trying to
         work out written agreements settling outstanding disputes from their
         eight-year war concerning border demarcation, prisoners-of-war, and freedom
         of navigation and sovereignty over the Shatt-al-Arab waterway; in April 1991
         official Iraqi acceptance of UN Security Council Resolution 687, which
         demands that Iraq accept the inviolability of the boundary set forth in its
         1963 agreement with Kuwait, ending earlier claims to Bubiyan and Warbah
         Islands or to all of Kuwait; a United Nations Boundary Demarcation
         Commission is demarcating the Iraq-Kuwait boundary persuant to Resolution
         687, and, on 17 June 1992, the UN Security Council reaffirmed the finality
         of the Boundary Demarcation Commission's decisions; periodic disputes with
         upstream riparian Syria over Euphrates water rights; potential dispute over
         water development plans by Turkey for the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
     Climate:
         mostly desert; mild to cool winters with dry, hot, cloudless summers;
         northernmost regions along Iranian and Turkish borders experience cold
         winters with occasionally heavy snows
     Terrain:
         mostly broad plains; reedy marshes in southeast; mountains along borders
         with Iran and Turkey
     Natural resources:
         crude oil, natural gas, phosphates, sulfur
     Land use:
         arable land 12%; permanent crops 1%; meadows and pastures 9%; forest and
         woodland 3%; other 75%; includes irrigated 4%
     Environment:
         development of Tigris-Euphrates Rivers system contingent upon agreements
         with upstream riparians (Syria, Turkey); air and water pollution; soil
         degradation (salinization) and erosion; desertification