SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to end Iraq’s requirement to compensate victims of its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
Michael Gaffey, president of the governing board of the U.N. compensation Commission, told the council after the vote that the body’s work was a “historic achievement for the United Nations and for effective multilateralism,” according to the Associated Press.
“Ultimately, 2.7 million claims were submitted to the commission seeking $352 billion in compensation,” AP quoted him as saying.
He added that the $52.4 billion awarded to 1.5 million claimants “represents approximately 15 percent of the total claims.”
Iraqi forces under then-dictator Saddam Hussein invaded oil-rich Kuwait on August 2, 1990, sparking international condemnation.
They occupied the Gulf state for seven months before they were pushed put by a U.S.-led international coalition in the first Gulf War early in 1991.
In 1991, the U.N. obliged Baghdad to compensate individuals, companies and governmental organizations and others who incurred losses resulting from the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
Gaffey said the governing council adopted its final decision on February 9 declaring that Iraq’s government had fulfilled its international obligations to compensate for losses and damages suffered as a direct result of its unlawful invasion of Kuwait, AP reported.
