“The payment of the last remaining installment of the State of Kuwait’s compensation amounting to 44 million US dollars has been completed, thus Iraq has completed the full payment of the compensation amounts approved by the United Nations Compensation Committee of the UN Security Council pursuant to Resolution no. 687 of the year 1991, with a total of 52.4 billion US dollars,” read a statement from the central bank.
The Compensation Commission was established in 1991 under Security Council resolutions to process some 2.7 million claims for damages made by individuals, corporations, governments, and international organizations, after Saddam Hussein invaded the country in August 1990.
It approved 1.5 million claims totaling approximately $52.4 billion.
Iraq in 2014 halted payments to Kuwait due to the war against Islamic State (ISIS) only to resume four years later in 2018.
The completion of the reparation payments come at an economically crucial time for Iraq, as the country seems to have been going through economic growth due to increasing oil prices.
A source from the Iraqi Central Bank earlier this month told the country’s state newspaper that the bank’s reserves have increased from $51.9 to $64 billion "due to a rise in the oil markets.”
Record low oil prices during the pandemic last year contributed to a financial crisis in Iraq, but a recent boost in the oil market and the central bank’s decision in December to devalue the dinar have eased the crisis as the Iraqi government depends on oil revenues to cover its costs and pay the salaries of its civil servants.
The final installment of the reparation payments to Kuwait will ease another burden on Baghdad.
