A paraglider flies the Kuwaiti national flag at a beach in Kuwait City on Feb 19, 2022, ahead of the celebrations of the 61th Independence Day and the 31st anniversary of the end of the Iraqi invasion of the Gulf country. (YASSER AL-ZAYYAT / AFP)
With Iraq completing its $52.4 billion reparations for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, the two countries can now focus on ironing out their economic relations and contributing to peace-building efforts in the Middle East, experts said.
Sujata Ashwarya, a West Asia expert and associate professor at New Delhi-based Jamia Millia Islamia, or JMI, university, said that both parties recognize that peaceful relations will lead to economic development and stability.
On Feb 9, the United Nations Compensation Commission, which was created to ensure restitution for Kuwait after the Iraqi invasion of 1990, announced that it had processed its final claim, amounting to $52.4 billion in total
And if this momentum is maintained, it can make the two Arab nations more stable and prosperous, “with a salutary impact on the region”, she said.
On Feb 9, the United Nations Compensation Commission, which was created to ensure restitution for Kuwait after the Iraqi invasion of 1990, announced that it had processed its final claim, amounting to $52.4 billion in total.
It said around 1.5 million successful claims were awarded out of a total of around 2.7 million lodged with the Commission. The plaintiffs included individuals, companies and governments who proved they had suffered damages from the invasion.
The payout was sourced from the UN Compensation Fund, which received a percentage of the proceeds generated over the years by the export sales of Iraqi petroleum and petroleum products, according to the UN.
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Ashwarya noted that the most important aspect of the agreement is “Iraq’s fulfillment of its international obligations”.
“Iraq has slowly but steadily closed one of the most difficult and time-consuming files in its regional relations, which was weighing on its economy. Iraq can now focus on economic recovery, foreign investment, and national infrastructure rebuilding,” she said.
Amjed Rasheed, a senior researcher at Open Think Tank, a non-profit organization that strives for peace and social change in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, noted that given the level of political instability in Iraq, fulfilling the payment to Kuwait is an “achievement”.
With the reparations completed, the two nations “can establish economic relations, especially in the energy sector”, said Rasheed, who is also a Hillary Clinton Fellow at Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland.
“In Arab tradition, paying compensation for blood eliminates the prospect of revenge. In the international relations game, I think Kuwait and Iraq are prepared to move forward and establish meaningful friendly relations,” said Rasheed.
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That said, relations between the two sides face challenges due to “geopolitical realities”, he noted.
In August 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait in a bid to gain more control over the lucrative oil supply of the Middle East.
At the end of February 1991, former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein signed a cease-fire agreement with the UN Security Council, in which Iraq agreed to surrender all weapons of mass destruction and pay damages for its seven-month occupation of Kuwait.
Clemens Chay, a Gulf expert and research fellow at the Middle East Institute of the National University of Singapore, or MEI-NUS, said the “sense of finality” will help turn a page in bilateral relations between Kuwait and Iraq, while the reparations also mark the weight of a rule-of-law approach.
“From the resolutions passed in the Security Council over the years, all the way down to the UN Compensation Commission, the aftermath of Kuwait’s liberation has been about obligations towards compensation — all these despite the removal of Saddam Hussein in 2003,” Chay said.
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“And this process, supported by both the UNSC and the powers behind this institution, reaffirms that a conflict as internationalized as the Iraqi aggression has its repercussions. The last time reparations on such a scale happened was in the immediate (post-World War II) period,” said Chay.
Rasheed, from Open Think Tank, said Iraq and Kuwait need to resolve the demarcation of their land and maritime borders.
He cited the issue of the Mubarak Al Kabeer Port in Boubyan Island in Kuwait, which Kuwait believes is a “sovereign issue”. The right to passage in this waterway is crucial to Iraqi trade.The two countries signed a deal in 2012 on the safety of navigation, but disagreements remain over maritime boundary.
Rasheed also said the two countries, along with the International Committee of the Red Cross, are working to find out the fate of missing persons. The ICRC estimates there are still some 1,000 cases of missing persons with 371 reported by Kuwait, 700 by Iraq and 9 by Saudi Arabia.
jan@chinadailyapac.com