Kuwait receives archives from Iraq, 30 year after they were seized

Employee at the Kuwaiti Information Ministry Essam al-Said inspects boxes in the back of a truck containing Kuwaiti archives seized during the Iraqi invasion of the Gulf emirate in 1990, after their restitution by Iraqi authorities in Kuwait City, on March 28, 2021 [YASSER AL-ZAYYAT/AFP via Getty Images]

Kuwait on Sunday received from Iraq the third batch of Kuwaiti property and archives that had been seized during Iraq’s invasion of its Gulf neighbour in 1990.

The Iraqi Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the Undersecretary for Legal Affairs and Multilateral Bilateral Relations, Qahtan Al-Janabi, delivered the Kuwaiti Archive to the Assistant of Kuwait’s Foreign Minister for international organisations, Nasser Al-Hain, at the Sheikh Saud Al-Nasser Institute for Diplomatic Studies in Kuwait.

The statement added that it included archives seized from a number of Kuwaiti colleges and institutes and large numbers of videos belonging to the Ministry of Information.

The Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) said this is the third such delivery, which was received in the presence of the UN Resident Coordinator in Kuwait, Tariq Al-Sheikh.

READ: Kuwait recovers 42,000 books belonging to its national archives recently found in Iraq

“This positive step comes within Iraq’s commitment to implementing the relevant Security Council resolutions,” Al-Hain said, adding that Kuwait welcomes Iraqi efforts “to complete the handover of all Kuwaiti property and archives”.

According to the Kuwaiti official, the recent return included properties, archives, and some special equipment seized from the Ministry of Information, the National Council for Culture, Arts and Literature, and Kuwait University.

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