The United Nations Compensation Commission has made another $1,038,375,281 available to the Government of Kuwait for distribution to eight successful claimants in compensation for Iraq’s 1990 invasion.

This payment leaves approximately $18 billion outstanding to six compensation awards.

Successful claims are paid with funds drawn from the United Nations Compensation Fund, which is funded by a percentage of the proceeds generated by the export sales of Iraqi petroleum and petroleum products.

This percentage was set at 5 per cent under Security Council resolution 1483 (2003), and reaffirmed in a number of subsequent resolutions, most recently under Security Council resolution 1956 (2010).

(Source: United Nations)

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has encouraged the Iraqi Government to act quickly to fulfil its obligations to find Kuwaiti or third country nationals, property and archives lost in Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait more than 20 years ago.

In his latest report to the Security Council on the subject, Mr. Ban says that the efforts in the search for missing Kuwaiti and third country nationals are gradually moving forward.

“I believe that the task of discovering the fate of missing Kuwaiti and third-country nationals is urgent and should not be influenced by political factors and considerations,” he says, adding that, for this reason, the humanitarian mandate must be insulated as much as possible from wider regional developments to ensure its effective implementation.

“Now that the organizational and logistical aspects of the search for the missing persons appear to be in place, the goal of finding and identifying the victims and finally closing their cases is an imperative,” Mr. Ban states in the report, which was released today and discussed by the Council.

Regarding the return of Kuwaiti property, the Secretary-General says he remains concerned that no progress has been made in the search for the Kuwaiti national archives, and that no credible information about their whereabouts has emerged.

Mr. Ban voices support for the recommendation of his High-Level Coordinator, Gennady Tarasov, that an effective national mechanism be set up by the Iraqi Government to lead and coordinate efforts to clarify the fate of the archives and other properties and report the results to the UN.

He also recommends that the Council extend the financing of the Coordinator’s mandate until December 2011 “in order to continue to build on the current momentum.”

The state-owned Iraqi Airways is offering one of its old Boeing jetliners for sale as scrap as it continues to sell off the remnants of a decades-old fleet that was moved to neighbouring countries after Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

The 737-200, parked for years at Queen Alia International Airport in Amman, Jordan, had been used by Saddam Hussein’s government to transport VIPs.

“This is one of the old aircraft which cannot be returned to service,” said Nasir al-Amiri, an adviser to Iraq’s transportation minister. “There were six aircraft (in Jordan). We sold five and this is the last one.”

“This is not a part of fleet modernization. It’s an old airplane and to get it back [in working order] would cost huge amounts of money,” Amiri said.

Thirteen Boeing 707, 727 and 737 aircraft were sent by Hussein’s government to Jordan, Tunisia and Iran to keep them safe from alliance airstrikes after the start of the war to liberate Kuwait, officials said.

Economic sanctions, political disputes and other factors prevented Iraq from maintaining or retrieving the aircraft. In some cases they were held due to compensation issues related to the Kuwait invasion and the Iran-Iraq war.

Baghdad and Kuwait have been locked in a long-running dispute over billions of dollars in reparations, including some $1.2 billion related to aircraft and parts seized during Saddam’s invasion.

Iraq’s government said last year it would dissolve Iraqi Airways within three years to avoid asset claims by Kuwait, whose national airline has pursued court judgements against Iraqi Airways.

Last month Kuwait seized the Iraqi Airways office in Amman after obtaining a court ruling there.

“There is no relation between the sale of these planes and the problem with Kuwait Airways. Our technical teams confirmed that it is not economic feasible to maintain the aircraft or return them to Iraq,” said Salman al-Behadli, a deputy of the transportation minister.

Amiri said Iraq had sold the Boeing jets in Tunis and five of those in Jordan but five remain in Tehran. Behadli said Iraq is negotiating with Tehran over the planes but had not yet reached a political agreement that would allow them to be sold.

(Source: Reuters)

The United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC), which settles the damage claims of those who suffered losses due to Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait, made $880 million available to nine successful claimants on Thursday.

The latest round of payments brings the total amount of compensation disbursed by the Commission to $32.2 billion for more than 1.5 million successful claims of individuals, corporations, Governments and international organizations, states a news release.

Successful claims are paid with funds drawn from the UN Compensation Fund, which is funded by a percentage of the proceeds generated by the export sales of Iraqi petroleum and petroleum products.

The Geneva-based UNCC’s Governing Council has identified six categories of claims: four are for individuals’ claims, one for corporations and one for governments and international organizations, which also includes claims for environmental damage.

The Commission was established in 1991 as a subsidiary organ of the UN Security Council. It has received nearly 3 million claims, including from close to 100 governments for themselves, their nationals or their corporations.

(Source: United Nations)

The United States hopes the U.N. Security Council will lift restrictions on the import of nuclear technology to Iraq, even though Baghdad has not ratified a U.N. agreement on tough atomic inspections, according to a report from Reuters.

At a meeting on Wednesday to be chaired by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, the 15-nation Security Council is expected to remove Iraq’s Chapter VII status, adopt resolutions ending the controversial U.N. oil-for-food program, and extend for six months immunities protecting Iraq from claims related to its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Those immunities will expire at the end of June 2011, a senior U.S. official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

Baghdad will keep paying 5 percent of its oil revenues as war reparations, most of it to Kuwait, despite Iraq’s calls for a renegotiation of those payments so it can use more of its oil money for needed development projects, Western diplomats said.

Iraq still owes Kuwait nearly $22 billion in reparations.

Iraq has agreed to allow Kuwaitis who owned real estate in Iraq to recover property seized under Saddam Hussein’s regime after the invasion of Kuwait 20 years ago, according to a report from Reuters.

Kuwaitis can recover their Iraqi property provided there is no legal decision prohibiting it, Iraq’s government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh (pictured), said after a cabinet decision on Monday.

The government also formed a ministerial committee “to study the cases of citizens displaced from Kuwait, in order to help them regain their rights and money,” he said.

Iraq allocates 5 percent of its annual oil revenue to pay Kuwait compensation for the 1990 invasion.

Tensions between the two states have continued to this day. Iraq announced the dissolution of its national airline, Iraq Airways, in June in response to legal action against the company by Kuwait, which sought $1.2 billion in compensation for aircraft seized by the Iraqi regime in 1990.

Dabbagh said two days ago that Iraq is intent on improving relations with Kuwait. He said the two countries will start demarcating their common border before investing jointly in oil fields in the area.

Kuwait’s Oil Minister, Sheikh Ahmad al-Abdullah al-Sabah, said on Aug. 25 that his country and Iraq had agreed in principle to share oil fields straddling their border to avoid any future accusations that either side is “over-utilizing” the fields.

Debate is raging in Iran regarding the issue of claiming reparations from Iraq in relation to the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

Earlier this month, a member of the Majlis (the Iranian parliament), Eivaz Heidarpour, who is also a member of Iran’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said that Iran could claim compensation from Iraq amounting to $1 trillion.

But this week a senior member of Iran’s Islamic Consultative Assembly has said that the time for addressing the issue of reparations relating to the Iraq-Iran war is over.

Seid Kazem Delkhosh told AKnews that the time has passed for discussion about the eight years of war between Iraq and Iran; the subject should have been discussed and finalised long ago.

Ali Alaq, the chief secretary of the Iraqi council of ministers told the Arabic Al-Sabah daily on Tuesday that if the Iranian authorities demanded compensation from the Iraqis for war damages, “which is an illogical request”, Iraq could also appeal for compensation from Iran.

He underlined that the Iraqi government needs to review its foreign policy in order to define a policy for compensation claims for damages the country incurred, is suffering, or may endure in the future.

This revision may help to get back a portion of the compensation due and to reimburse some of the debts Iraq has accumulated, “but this is feasible only when the political parties in Iraq all cooperate,” Alaq continued.

Delkhosh said that Iran and Iraq, as two Muslim counties with Sunni and Shia populations are sympathetic to each other and it was the opponents of the two nations who inflicted the war on them as neither the Iraqis nor the Iranians supported it.

Iraq invaded Iran on 22 September 1980, triggering a bitter eight-year war which destabilized the region and devastated both countries.

A territorial dispute over the Shatt al-Arab, the waterway which forms the boundary between the two countries led to the outbreak of the war.

Iraq has so far paid off $30.1 billion of its $52.4 billion reparations debt to Kuwait, relating to its invasion of the country in 1991.

(Source: Tehran Times, AKnews, UN Compensation Commission)

(Photo: the disputed Shatt al-Arab waterway)

Iraq has intensified efforts to resolve its debt problems with neighboring Kuwait, in order to end the international restrictions imposed on the country following the invasion of Kuwait two decades ago, said Iraq’s deputy foreign minister.

Iraq was placed under United Nations’ Chapter 7 status in 1991 after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait.

Speaking to AKnews, Labid Abawi said, “Iraq is committed to the U.N. Security Council’s resolutions and works to close this dossier (of debts) as soon as possible.”

Iraq has paid off $30.1 billion so far but needs to pay another $22.3 billion.

The Chapter 7 terms have restricted Iraq efforts to equip the army to protect its borders and do not allow it to import certain chemicals and other items.

Kuwait has repeatedly refused to end Iraq’s Chapter 7 status saying Iraq first needs to pay off its debts fully, settle its territorial disputes with Kuwait and provide clear answers as to the fate of the Kuwaitis who went missing during the war.

(Source: AKnews, UN Compensation Commission)

(Photo: Kuwaiti oil fires, Desert Storm, 1991)