UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Tuesday said UN encourages Iraq to continue to pay five percent of its oil and gas revenues to UN Compensation Fund despite recent dispute resulting from Kurdistan Regional Government selling oil without Baghdad’s consent.
In his sixth six-month report to the Security Council, Ban said the Governing Council of the Geneva-based UN Compensation Commission held an informal meeting on June 12 to discuss the export sales of oil out of the Kurdistan region without the consent of the Iraqi Government and their implications.
“Noting that Iraq is nearing the conclusion of the fulfillment of its obligations, with outstanding compensation projected to be paid in full in 2015, the Governing Council encourages the Government of Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government to work together to ensure that Iraq continues to deposit five percent of all (oil and gas) export sales … into the Compensation Fund,” as required by Council relevant resolutions, Ban said, according to the kuwaiti news agency KUNA.
He added that his Special Representative for Iraq Nickolay Mladenov “will continue efforts to facilitate a prompt resolution of this matter.” Ban noted in his report that the Iraq Committee of Financial Experts (COFE) reiterated to the Compensation Commission secretariat during a meeting last February Baghdad’s commitment to comply with the UN relevant resolutions.
He said that since his latest report in December, the Compensation Commission made two payments to Kuwait totaling USD 2.02 billion: the first on 23 January 2014 and the second on 24 April 2014, recalling that the overall amount of compensation paid to date by the Commission is USD 45.5 billion, leaving approximately USD 6.9 billion outstanding to be paid to Kuwait in 2015 to settle the last remaining claim.
Based on current levels of income accumulated in the Compensation Fund, Ban expressed satisfaction that Baghdad “remains committed to complying with its obligations” under relevant Council resolutions.
The Fund was created to compensate Governments, entities and individuals who suffered losses during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990.