Geneva, February 10 (BNA) Iraq has completed the payment of $52.4 billion to compensate individuals, companies and governments who proved damages resulting from the 1990 invasion and occupation of Kuwait, the United Nations Compensation Authority said.
The United Nations Compensation Commission, set up by the UN Security Council after the seven-month occupation of the emirate and the defeat of Saddam Hussein’s US-led forces in the Gulf War, received a portion of the proceeds from Iraqi oil sales. The rate has varied over 30 years, with the most recent being 3%.
In all, about 2.7 million claims were filed, with a confirmed value of $352.5 billion, but the UN Compensation Commission agreed to pay $52.4 billion covering 1.5 million successful claims.
The largest claim approved by the UN Compensation Commission was for compensation to the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) worth $14.7 billion after Iraqi forces set oil wells on fire, according to Reuters.
Payments were suspended between October 2014 and April 2018 due to the Iraqi government’s security and budgetary problems in its fight against Islamic State militants.
“With the final payment of compensation made on January 13, 2022, all compensation awarded by the commission has now been paid in full,” the Geneva-based body said in a statement after a closed meeting of its board of directors.
It added that “the Government of Iraq has fulfilled its international obligations to compensate all the claimants for whom the Commission granted compensation for the losses and damages they sustained as a direct result of Iraq’s illegal invasion of Kuwait.”
Bethcheba Crocker, the US ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, tweeted on Tuesday after talks with Qahtan al-Janabi, Iraq’s undersecretary for multilateral and legal affairs, and other diplomats ahead of Wednesday’s meeting: “We commend Iraq for completing payments to all UNCC claims, Historic achievement.
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