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Kuwait urges Iraq to fully apply UN resolutions

KUWAIT CITY — Kuwait has urged Iraq to fully apply all international resolutions and settle outstanding issues after the UN Security Council voted last week to end key sanctions imposed on Baghdad.

The Kuwait’s cabinet on Sunday night also welcomed the Security Council resolutions to halt some sanctions imposed after former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein ordered his troops to invade Kuwait in 1990.

The cabinet said in a statement that “commitment to serious and full implementation of Security Council resolutions related to the situation between Iraq and Kuwait will close all files and settle outstanding issues.

“This will also lay foundations for strong relations based on the respect of sovereignty and independence and the principle of good neighbourly relations and non-interference in internal affairs.”

The 15-nation Council last Wednesday passed one resolution lifting sanctions imposed in 1991 to stop Iraq building nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, and another resolution formally ended the oil-for-food programme.

A third resolution extended UN protection by six months for hundreds of millions of dollars in the Development Fund for Iraq set up after the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam to handle oil and other revenues.

Iraq has been the target of about 70 UN resolutions since its August 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon stressed that Iraq must work to agree on a border with Kuwait and settle a dispute over war reparations if all sanctions are to be lifted.

Iraq still pays five percent of revenues from its oil sales into a reparations fund for Kuwait, which is demanding that Iraq pay another 22 billion dollars. Kuwait has received about 13 billion dollars in reparations.

Kuwait also demands the return of its stolen property during the seven-month Iraqi occupation and explain the fate of hundreds of missing Kuwaitis.