Iraq says paid $50 bln in war reparations to Kuwait

BAGHDAD

Iraq has so far paid $49.5 billion in war reparations to Kuwait, an Iraqi official said on Tuesday.

“Iraq’s dues now amount to only $2.5 billion,” Mazhar Salih, an adviser to the prime minister, told Al-Sabaah newspaper.

In 1991, the UN obliged Baghdad to pay $52.4 billion in compensation to individuals, companies, governmental organizations, and others who incurred losses resulting from the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

Salih said the Iraqi government is deducting 3% of oil revenues to pay the remaining compensation to Kuwait following the 1991 Iraqi invasion of its Gulf neighbor.

“The remaining war reparations are expected to be paid within a year or so,” he said.

In May 2020, Iraqi lawmaker Hanin Qaddo told Anadolu Agency that Baghdad had asked Kuwait to postpone the payment of $3.7 billion in war reparations to the Gulf state.

*Ahmed Asmar contributed to this report from Ankara.