'Coalition forces are currently protecting the Gulf, and our navy will not receive its first ships until April 2009,' Abdel Qader Jassem Mohammed Al-Obeidi told a press conference in Baghdad.
If those forces 'withdraw precipitously, our gulf will become like the Gulf of Aden, where there have been 95 acts of piracy,' he said.
Mr Abdel was addressing journalists on his support for the controversial military pact that would see US troops remain in Iraq until the end of 2011, a deal now being considered by the Iraqi parliament.
The minister did not enlarge on his remarks. In particular, he did not explain how the Gulf would become prey to pirates when one of its littoral states, Bahrain, is home to the US Navy's Fifth Fleet.
The Gulf, which supplies the bulk of world oil imports, is also bordered by Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Iran.
In recent months, Somali-based pirates have been plaguing shipping in the Gulf of Aden and in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa.