Kuwaiti, Iraqi ambassadors report Khor Abdullah deal to UN

The Permanent Representative of the State of Kuwait to the United Nations Mansour Ayyad Al-Otaibi and his Iraqi counterpart Mohammad Ali Al-Hakim presented UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon with a copy of a recently reached navigation agreement, Wednesday night. This came in a meeting with Ban which was the second within a few months and said to be requested "to relay some good news." The officials reported the neighboring countries' signing and ratification of an agreement regulating navigation in Khor Abdullah. This development is within the framework of article 102 of the UN Charter. The article states, "Every treaty and every international agreement entered into by any Member of the United Nations after the present Charter comes into force shall as soon as possible be registered with the Secretariat and published by it." In remarks after the meeting, Al-Otaibi told KUNA he had stressed to the UN top official that the two countries are next to set up a joint management body for the Khor Abdullah waterway. He also stressed, he added, that the two states are keen on improving relations in all fields, recalling several agreements signed during the third session of the Ministerial Joint Committee held in Kuwait, December 15-16. "We are pleased with the progress we are seeing in bilateral relations between our two countries," he remarked. Al-Otaibi also said that Ban had expressed keenness to visit the two countries ahead of attending the Syria donors conference in Kuwait, due January 15. On the Iraqi side, Ambassador Al-Hakim told KUNA the agreement is another step on the way of improving economic, political, and social interaction between the two neighbors. "We are done with 'all problems' and are now moving on to the next step of bolstering economic, political, and social cooperation and of increasing exchange of visits by our officials. "There is no going back," he said of efforts to improve relations. Recalling that Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari was just in Kuwait earlier in the week to sign several agreements, he stressed, "We are moving forward along this track." In comment over the meeting with Ban, Associate Spokesperson for the Secretary-General Farhan Haq said, "this indicates that matters reached a stage of 'solution' through continued cooperation on both sides and good neighborly conduct."