UN envoy on return of missing Kuwaitis in first-ever visit to Baghdad for talks

Following an invitation from the Iraqi Government, a United Nations envoy is arriving in Baghdad today for two days of talks with authorities on the return of missing persons and seized Kuwaiti property.

UN High-level Coordinator Yuli Vorontsov travelled overland from Amman, Jordan, where he followed from the margins of a meeting of the new technical subcommittee on missing persons of the Tripartite Commission, a UN spokesman said.

Earlier on this trip, Ambassador Vorontsov visited Cairo for talks with Amre Mousa, head of the Arab League, and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher. On 13 January, the UN envoy met with the Secretary-General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, Abdelouahed Belkeziz, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Ambassador Vorontsov is expected to be in Baghdad through Monday, when he will travel to the headquarters of the UN Iraq-Kuwait Observer Mission (UNIKOM) at Um Qasr and then on to Kuwait City for official meetings.

He is scheduled to return to Amman on Wednesday, when the second meeting of the technical committee will take place, before returning to New York on 24 January to report to Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the spokesman said.