Iraq to finish Kuwait war reparations in 2015

Iraq estimates that it will complete reparations payments to neighbouring Kuwait in 2015 for Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said on Thursday. Kuwait has so far received around $30 billion in war reparations, out of about $41 billion, a figure decided by a UN body after Iraqi troops were driven out of Kuwait in 1991 following a seven-month occupation. Baghdad currently pays five percent of its oil and gas revenue into a special UN fund that pays the compensation. "If we continue at this pace, I think that in 2015, after paying all the war compensation, Iraq will be completely removed from Chapter 7," Zebari said at a news conference in Baghdad. He was referring to a section of the UN charter which allows for sanctions ranging from economic measures to an arms embargo. Iraq and Kuwait have in recent months been taking steps to resolve longstanding disagreements, including asking the UN to start repairing border markers and working to reach a settlement on a dispute between the two countries' state-run airlines.