Iraq/Kuwait

Expected Council Action
In early June, the next report is due from the Secretary-General on Iraq’s compliance with resolution 1284 on the repatriation of Kuwaiti and third-country nationals or their remains, and the return of property following the first Gulf War. The Council will likely hold consultations and hear a briefing by the new High-level Coordinator Gennady Tarasov of Russia (who in April succeeded the late Yuli Vorontsov). At press time, the briefing was scheduled for 26 June. The Council is likely to follow its usual practice and issue a press statement.

Key Recent Developments
In his last report, on 6 December, the High-level Coordinator stated that the number of Kuwaiti and third-country nationals whose mortal remains had been identified remained unchanged (at 233) since the June 2007 report. Kuwait remained unable to send field missions in Iraq to perform exhumation activities because of the security situation. He added that the Kuwaiti national archives, which disappeared during the 1990-91 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, remained missing. Although the US military in Iraq recovered in October 2007 two boxes of documents belonging to the Kuwaiti ministries of Defence, Labour and Information, it appears that these documents are not part of the Kuwaiti national archives. He also noted that while Kuwait remained determined to ensure that the remains of missing persons were repatriated, this essentially humanitarian task was taking much longer than expected.

On 11 December, the Council was briefed by Angela Kane, Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs on behalf of the High-level Coordinator. Following its usual practice, the Council adopted a press statement condemning the execution of Kuwaiti and third-country nationals by the former Iraqi regime, and expressing condolences to all of the families of those missing persons who had now been identified. A new element, though, was the Council’s expression of confidence that Iraq and Kuwait could work towards constructive arrangements to enable a satisfactory solution to all of the outstanding humanitarian aspects.

Another new development was a Council letter in March to the Secretary-General requesting within one year a report with a timescale for the completion of the mandate. Despite a proposal from the Secretary-General for funding from the Iraq escrow account for the activities of the High-level Coordinator over the next four years, the Council agreed to earmark funds for only one year of operations.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, met during the third expanded conference of Iraq’s neighbouring countries held in Kuwait on 21 and 22 April. They discussed issues of mutual concern and means of developing bilateral ties.

Council Dynamics
Within the Council, this issue is principally of interest to the P5. The UK has the lead.

There is still consensus that in the absence of a full completion of the coordinator’s mandate, and because this is such an important issue for Kuwait, this semi-annual reporting process is necessary. The issue of an endpoint for the mandate has never been directly addressed by the Council. But the Council’s request for a timescale for completion of the mandate seems to indicate a desire to establish an endpoint. It seems that a proposal was raised during consultations in December that solutions should be found on a bilateral basis between Iraq and Kuwait. This was reflected in the press statement. However, there is much sympathy in the Council for Kuwait’s position that the process should be allowed to continue, and it seems that Russia supports the Secretary-General’s request for a four-year financial commitment to cover the activities of the High-level Coordinator.

Full forecast