Posted: December 16, 2011 inIraq: Chapter VII,Iraqi Dinar/Politics
Tags:Ban Ki-Moon,Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter,france,Iraq,kuwait,Kuwaiti,United Nation,United Nations Secretary General,United Nations Security Council
The Currency Newshound Commentary: This is a clear explanation by France, a permanent member of the United Nations as well as member of the United Nations Security Council on the remaining issues which Iraq must achieve prior to being considered for full relief from Chapter VII sanctions. These conditions are as follows:
- the marking and demarcation of the borders
- compensation
- the archives which were stolen
- the question of the disappeared Kuwaiti citizens
- statement by PM Maliki saying Iraq will not attack Kuwait in the future (not mentioned below)
This article as well as the conclusions made by the UNSC Iraq-Kuwait review show Chapter VII sanctions are in fact still in place and not lifted.
In a personal opinion, I believe Iraq as well as Kuwait are intensifying their
relationship based on the recent news coming from the region as well as the statements coming from the United Nations. I pray the two countries can find common ground to resolve the aforementioned issues. Considering the eagerness demonstrated from some Iraqi politicians and their desire for Chapter VII to be lifted I hope this clear outline by the UNSC will give these politicians reason to ask their own government to increase diplomacy and negotiations with Kuwait and ultimately find conclusion.
PARIS, Dec 16 (KUNA) — France said on Friday that it was “very attentive” to the unresolved Kuwaiti issues concerning the 1990-1991 Iraqi occupation, in particular painful questions like the Kuwaiti missing and the restitution of property like the national archives and other stolen items, andParis urged Iraq to pursue efforts to resolve these questions.
French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero indicated in answer to KUNA questions thatFrance “encouraged Iraq to get in conformity with the demands which were reiterated yesterday in the (UN) Security Council”.
He also urged “the pursuit and broadening of bilateral relations between the two countries”.
The UN Security Council was briefed Thursday on the pending issues and extended for another six months the mandate of UN Coordinator for Kuwaiti-Iraqi issues, Gennady Tarasov, despite Iraq objections.
UN Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon recommended the extension and has urged Iraq to do more to resolve the
Kuwaiti demands.
Iraq has been slow to comply with demands on several core issues, notably the provision of information on the more than 600 Kuwaitis who were kidnapped by Iraqi forces during the occupation. Many of these cases remain unresolved, despite a decade of demands by Kuwait and the international community to bring closure to this national tragedy.
Iraq has also failed to account for the national archives stolen from Kuwait and a vast amount of property that was taken by the Iraqi occupation forces, including valuable and historic pieces.
There is also the question of financial compensation of around USD 20 billion which must still be paid by Iraq. Moreover, the frontier delineation question has not been fully settled, as Iraq is required to do if it wants UN sanctions applied in 1990 to be fully lifted.
The UN has told Iraq it must help produce “tangible progress” on the issue of the missing Kuwaitis and it was also told to work for an “intensification of efforts to clarify the whereabouts of the archives” as there has been “no substantial progress” on this issue, in the words of UN Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon.
The UN Security Council told Iraq Thursday that it needed to make efforts “to fully meet these commitments, specifically finding Kuwaiti or third-country nationals, property and archives, (and) the members of the Security Council once again expressed their deepest sympathy and condolences to the families of those involved”.
“We expect Iraq to continue to work in this direction and we join the call of the Security Council and we observe the improvements in bilateral relations between Iraq and Kuwait these past months,” the French official indicated.
He specifically pointed to bilateral visits these past months and to the establishment of a bilateral committee between the two nations.
“We want the movement which has started these past months to be continued and the bilateral committee was an important step and we encourage the two parties to use this body to make progress on these files in a spirit of dialogue and in a spirit turned towards the future,” Valero affirmed.
“In the framework of the work of the Security Council…we are obviously very attentive to the evolution of this file, which deals with issues that are particularly sensitive, notably concerning the disappeared persons and we evidently encourage Iraq to work on getting into conformity with the demands which were reiterated yesterday by the Security Council,” Valero responded.
He also said Paris supported UN Resolution 1958, voted Dec 15, 2010, which calls for lifting the punitive sanctions placed on Iraq under Chapter VII of the UN Charter because of the invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, but only once the Kuwaiti issues are settled.
He said France supported lifting UN measures on Iraq, “if it normalises its relations with Kuwait”.
He added there was a whole series of measures Iraq must take, including “the marking and demarcation of the borders, compensation, the archives which were stolen, and, obviously, the question of the disappeared Kuwaiti citizens”.
These issues are “preconditions” for lifting the Chapter VIIand “we expect these preconditions set out in the (Dec 2010) resolution to be met,” the French spokesman said.
