Kuwaiti Minister optimistic about future relations with Iraq

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Kuwait‘s Oil Minister, Sheikh Ahmed Al-Abdullah, has expressed optimism towards the bilateral relations between Iraq and Kuwait, following an official visit by Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki to Kuwait last week. “We are optimistic about the bilateral relations between Kuwait and Iraq, but there are still suspended dossiers Maliki had promised to open and settle,” Sheikh Abdullah told the Kuwaiti Al-Ra’e Newspaper on Monday. Iraq‘s Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, had visited Kuwait last Wednesday on an official visit, accompanied by a number of ministers and officials. He was received in Kuwait Airport by Kuwaiti Prime Minister, Sheikh Nasser al-Ahmed Al-Subah and a number of Kuwaiti ministers and officials. “We hope that the suspended dossiers between Kuwait and Iraq be treated in the nearest possible time without postponement, in such a way that serves the interests of both peoples,” t he Kuwaiti Minister added. Kuwait‘s Prime Minister, Sheikh Nasser al-Ahmed al-Subah, had paid an official visit to Baghdad on Feb. 12, 2011, and was received in Baghdad International Airport by his Iraqi Counterpart, Nouri al-Maliki, and then conferred with Iraqi President, Jalal Talabani and Parliament Speaker, Usama al-Nujeify. The dossier of the Iraqi-Kuwaiti relations comprises several suspended issues, most important of which are the compensations Iraq pays for Kuwait due to its invasion in 1990, Kuwait‘s attitude towards the UN Charter’s 7th Item, along with the demarcation of joint borders between both countries and the remains of Kuwaitis, lost in Iraq. U.S. Vice-President, Joseph Biden, had told a UN Security Council session on 15/12/2010, that the Council had decided to abolish the penalties, issued against Iraq after its invasion of Kuwait in 1990, whilst Iraq‘s Foreign Minister, Hoshiar Zibary, told the same session that Iraq had a “long way” to settle all suspended problems with Kuwait.  SKH (TI)/SR 638