“370 missing Kuwaitis in Iraq,” Iraqi and Kuwaiti request of the United Nations for the maintenance of border markers
03-05-2012 11:14 AM
KUWAIT: Kuwait and Iraq have jointly asked the United Nations to start repairing border markers, delayed for years due to Iraqi objections, a senior Kuwaiti official said yesterday. Kuwait’s permanent representative to the UN Mansoor Al-Oteibi told the official KUNA news agency the request was made in a joint letter by him and his Iraqi counterpart, Hamed Al-Bayati, on Tuesday. “We requested a meeting with (Undersecretary General for Political Affairs) B. Lynn Pascoe this week to discuss taking the necessary measures to start the maintenance work on the border markers,” Oteibi said.
The work will be carried out on the basis of Security Council Resolution 833, adopted in 1993, to demarcate the borders, three years after Iraq’s late Saddam Hussein invaded the emirate, he said. Baghdad had objected to the repairs for the past six years because the new border line passes through Iraqi farms near Umm Qasr and Safwan. Kuwait has made the repairs a precondition for improving ties with Iraq.
The move comes just days after successful meetings in Baghdad of the joint commission headed by the countries’ foreign ministers, which concluded with a number of agreements. It also comes after a landmark visit in March by HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah to Baghdad to attend the Arab summit, the first visit by a Kuwaiti leader in 22 years. Kuwait Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Sabah was quoted by media as saying yesterday that the two countries signed a deal to regulate navigation in the Khour Abdullah waterway, where Kuwait is building a mega port that Iraq says will strangle its shipping lines.
Oteibi said talks were ongoing with Iraq on the whereabouts of 370 missing Kuwaitis taken prisoners during the 1990-91 occupation, and to return stolen Kuwaiti property, especially state archives. He said Kuwait is assisting Iraq to secure an exit from under Chapter 7 of the UN Security Council imposed after its invasion of the state. The two countries have not yet resolved other outstanding issues. Iraq is still required to pay $16 billion of war reparation to Kuwait on top of $25 billion already paid. Baghdad currently pays five percent of its oil and gas revenue into a special United Nations fund that pays the compensation. – AFP
Alternate article:
Revealed Kuwait yesterday they made a joint request with Iraq to the United Nations in order to determine the tripartite meeting to discuss the necessary procedures for installing and maintenance of border markers between the two countries, while confirming that it is still awaiting the fate of 370 missing in Iraq and the state archives, praised the efforts of Iraq in this area.
said Permanent Representative of Kuwait to the United Nations, Ambassador Mansour Ayyad Al-Otaibi told the Kuwait News Agency Official (KUNA), the ‘Joint Committee discussed during its recent meeting in Baghdad file of prisoners and missing persons and Kuwaiti property, and talks are continuing’, stressing that ‘there are 370 missing was unaccounted for after the addition to the archives of the Kuwaiti state. ‘
He noted Otaibi that the ‘subject human There is no disagreement about it, and Kuwait appreciates the efforts made by the Iraqi government is also aware that without Iraq’s cooperation in these two cases will not be able to achieve real progress’
the agency said Al-Otaibi sent with his Iraqi counterpart, Hamid al-Bayati, a joint letter, on Tuesday, to the Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations for Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe to hold a tripartite meeting this week to consider taking the necessary steps to start a maintenance project marks the border between the two countries.
In this context, an representative of Kuwait and Iraq, his country’s desire that ‘the United Nations of its responsibility in the legal implementation of the project and the maintenance of border markers in accordance with the Security Council resolution 833 on the demarcation of the border between the two countries’.
He said that Al-Otaibi ‘implementation of resolution 833 would create the appropriate atmosphere to build confidence and push bilateral ties to a broader horizons people of both countries reap its fruits.’
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kuwait Tuesday, that the meetings conducted by a few days ago in Baghdad with the Iraqi government resulted in an agreement on the demarcation of the border once and for all, in addition to the establishment of a joint committee between the two countries to oversee the implementation of the agreement.
There were meetings of the Iraqi-Kuwaiti joint in Baghdad, in the 29 April 2012, and announced, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari after the completion of the signing of a protocol with Kuwait for the organization of navigation in the Khawr Abd Allah, confirming that it will sign more protocols during the visit of Prime Minister of Kuwait Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah to Iraq in the last quarter of this year.
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