Iraq pays final instalment of $52bn war reparations to Kuwait

Iraq has paid the final installment of war reparations to Kuwait totalling $52.4 billion. The country’s Central Bank announced on Tuesday that the remaining $44 million had been paid in compensation to Kuwait, in accordance with UN Security Council’s Resolution 687 in 1991 following the end of the Gulf War after the invasion of Kuwait.

“It is hoped that ending the payment of compensation will contribute to removing Iraq from Chapter VII, as well as its impact on re-integrating the Iraqi banking system with the global banking system and benefiting from the financial abundance that will be achieved,” the bank stated in reference to the sanctions that were imposed on Iraq.

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The adviser to the Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, Mudher Muhammad Salih, told the Iraqi News Agency (INA) today that “Iraq ended the Kuwait war compensation file, as it paid the last payment of dues about less than $45 million.”

“With this, Iraq paid all obligations imposed on it under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter and relevant Security Council resolutions in 1991,” Salih added.

“This senseless war is borne by the people of Iraq,” noting that “the closure of Kuwait’s compensation file is a new page in Iraq’s economic history.” According to the adviser, the reparations cost the average Iraqi citizen between $6-7 million per day.

Last month Baghdad said it paid Kuwait $490 million and said it would work to pay the remaining amount at the start of 2022.

In 2014, Iraq halted paying compensation due to the war against Daesh, which controlled a third of the country, but resumed payments in 2018. However, it asked for an extension of the final $3.8 billion due to its worsening economic crisis amid the coronavirus pandemic that negatively impacted oil prices.

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