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Kuwait receives 13 bln dlrs compensation from Iraq

The Public Authority for Compensation said in a statement carried by the official KUNA news agency that the figure represented the total received up to the end of last year and that Kuwait was pursuing tens of billions more.

Iraq is required to pay 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 fund has received claims worth 368 billion dollars, but has so far approved the payment of just over 52 billion dollars, including around 39 billion dollars for Kuwait, 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.

During a conference of Iraq’s neighbours and world powers held in Kuwait last year, Baghdad officially asked that the reparations be cancelled or at least reduced.

Kuwait’s compensation authority says on its website that since 1996, it has submitted claims of close to 190 billion dollars, mostly from the government.

The figure includes 40 billion dollars for environmental damage, 29 billion dollars for destruction of oil facilities and 11 billion dollars for damage to sea and desert resources.