Iraq pays first war reparations to Kuwait since 2014

GENEVA: Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has been dead for more than a decade but Kuwait is still receiving reparations for his 1990 invasion, with the latest tranche of $90 million approved on Friday. The payment was the first authorised by the United Nations Compensation Commission since 2014 when there was a pause in reparations due to a security crisis in Iraq, notably the takeover of large swatches of the country by the Islamic State group. The commission was set up by the UN Security Council in 1991, the same year that a US-led coalition drove Saddam Hussein’s forces out of Kuwait. It has been authorised to pay out $52.4 billion (42.3 billion euros) to individuals, corporations, government bodies and other organisations that incurred losses directly caused by the Iraqi leader’s incursion and occupation of Kuwait. The funds come from a levy on the sale of Iraqi oil and petroleum products. Including Friday’s payment, the commission has doled out $47.9 billion to an estimated 1.5 million claimants. Until it requested a pause in 2014, Iraq had adhered to the levy, although some have questioned whether the scheme remains fair to a still-struggling nation, given that Saddam Hussein was ousted from power by another US invasion in 2003.