KUWAIT CITY - Iraq owes Kuwait 25.5 billion dollars of war reparations for the 1990 occupation of the oil-rich emirate by Saddam Hussein’s forces, a Kuwaiti official said on Tuesday. The compensation claims, approved by the United Nations, have yet to be paid by Baghdad, head of Kuwait’s Public Authority for Compensation Khaled al-Mudhaf was cited as saying by the KUNA news agency.
Iraq is required to put five percent of its oil revenues into a fund created by the UN Security Council to pay reparations for war damage during the seven-month occupation of its neighbour.
The UN fund has received claims worth 368 billion dollars and has so far approved the payment of just over 52 billion dollars, based on figures from the fund and Kuwait.
The fund has paid out almost 27 billion dollars to claimants, according to figures up to the end of January posted on the fund’s website.
Following the overthrow of Saddam in a US-led invasion in 2003, Iraq has repeatedly appealed to foreign countries, especially Kuwait, to waive tens of billions of dollars in compensation.
Iraq also owes Kuwait around 16 billion dollars in debt from loans to Saddam Hussein during Baghdad’s eight-year war with Iran which ended in 1988.
