Middle East

States from the Middle East have concluded about 600 investment deals. 44 ISDS cases have been brought against Middle Eastern countries, while investors from the region have initiated 44 cases as well.

In 2013, Al-Kharafi & Sons Co., investors from Kuwait, were awarded US$935 million under the Unified Agreement for the Investment of Arab Capital in the Arab States, in a dispute over a land-leasing contract for a tourism project in Libya, making it one of the largest known awards to date. They had only invested about US$5 million but the arbitration tribunal decided that Libya also had to compensate for profits that would have been made during the 90-year leasing contract and were now lost.

Photo: President of Azerbaijan / CC BY 4.0

(April 2020)

Reuters | 21-Apr-2021
Miner Alamos Gold said its Netherlands units will file an investment treaty claim exceeding $1 billion against Turkey for "unfair and inequitable treatment" with its gold mining project.
Le Monde Arabe | 6-Apr-2021
Pour Orange, l’Irak du début des années 2010 était un marché juteux et à fort potentiel de croissance, après l’intervention américaine avait laissé un pays en ruine.
CNN | 24-Feb-2021
An aribtral tribunal ordered Libya to pay the Al Kharafi Group $930 million in damages. The Al Kharafi Group sued the Libyan state in France too, so when Gadhafi’s A340 landed in France, they sought to have it impounded.
Reuters | 24-Feb-2021
Kuwaiti logistics company Agility’s claim to recover more than $380 million it said it lost in Iraq has been rejected by an international tribunal.
Le Monde du Droit | 30-Jan-2021
Un tribunal arbitral présidé par Albert Jan van den Berg a octroyé US$218.205,00 en dommages-intérêts à M. El Jaouni alors que le montant des dommages-intérêts initialement sollicités s’élevait à US$1.3 milliard.
Mondaq | 26-Oct-2020
Most recently, Jersey has joined Hong Kong as another non-sovereign entity that negotiates its own BITs. Jersey is set to sign its first BIT with the UAE later this year.
La Lettre A | 24-Oct-2020
Près de dix ans après le début du conflit libyen, une créance d’un milliard d’euros fait toujours l’objet d’âpres batailles juridiques entre Paris, Tripoli et Koweït city.
BFM | 15-Oct-2020
L’opérateur télécoms français Orange a lancé une procédure judiciaire contre l’Etat irakien pour "expropriation" en mars 2019 de son investissement dans l’opérateur Korek Telecom, estimé à plus de 400 millions de dollars.
Telecompaper | 15-Oct-2020
Orange Group has instituted legal proceedings against Iraq in an attempt to claw back more than USD 400 million in investments it alleges were expropriated by the country’s regulator.