Kuwait ready to resolve pending issues with Iraq

Kuwait Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Hamad al-Sabah said Kuwait is ready to end the outstanding issues with Iraq in accordance with the international resolutions issued after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, an Iraqi official newspaper reported on Monday. "The two countries have a genuine desire to end the problems caused by the invasion of Saddam's regime to the State of Kuwait. Kuwait is ready to resolve those issues concerning the country," the state-run al-Sabah newspaper quoted the Kuwaiti official as saying. "Iraq committed to follow UN resolutions especially regarding reparation and will witness a qualitative leap in relations between the two countries," al-Sabah said. He said that there will be a meeting next month between the Prime Ministers Nuri al-Maliki and Sheikh Jaber al-Mubarak al- Hamad al-Sabah. The two sides intend to sign an "important bilateral agreement." In addition, the Joint Iraqi-Kuwaiti Action Committee will hold a meeting in Kuwait in March, which will be crucial for ending pending issues, he added. The paper also quoted the Kuwaiti official as saying that the highest authorities of both countries agreed on a timetable to close the page of the past as well as build stronger relations than of before 1990. The two countries recently made tangible strides that might contribute to solve the issues, including striking a 500 million dollars deal for the standoff with the Iraqi Airways, which prevented the Iraqi planes from flying to destinations in the West. Observers see that such moves are helpful to ending the UN sanctions, which was known as "Chapter 7" sanctions, imposed on Iraq after the 1990 invasion.