Map references: Middle East
Area:
total area: 437,072 sq km
land area: 432,162 sq km
comparative area: slightly more than twice the size of Idaho
Land boundaries: total 3,631 km, Iran 1,458 km, Jordan 181 km, Kuwait
242 km, Saudi Arabia 814 km, Syria 605 km, Turkey 331 km
Coastline: 58 km
Maritime claims: continental shelf: not specified territorial sea: 12 nm
International 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 November 1994, Iraq formally accepted the UN-demarcated border with Kuwait which had been spelled out in Security Council Resolutions 687 (1991), 773 (1993), and 883 (1993); this formally ends earlier claims to Kuwait and to Bubiyan and Warbah islands; 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; northern mountainous regions along Iranian and Turkish borders experience cold winters with occasionally heavy snows which melt in early spring, sometimes causing extensive flooding in central and southern Iraq
Terrain: mostly broad plains; reedy marshes along Iranian border in south; mountains along borders with Iran and Turkey
Natural resources: petroleum, natural gas, phosphates, sulfur
Land use: arable land: 12% permanent crops: 1% meadows and pastures: 9% forest and woodland: 3% other: 75%