Security Council discusses two Iraq-related reports

The United Nations Security Council met in closed session today to discuss two Iraq-related reports from Secretary-General Kofi Annan – one on missing Kuwaiti property, the other on the budget for phasing out the Oil-for-Food programme, on which 60 per cent of Iraqis were totally dependent for rations during Saddam Hussein’s regime.

In the first, Mr. Annan reports that the ousted government failed to return most of the Kuwaiti property seized during its 1990-91 occupation of its neighbour despite some “limited cooperation” prior to the recent hostilities. He expresses the hope that there will be “continued commitment to the search and return of Kuwaiti property and archives and that real progress may soon be achieved.”

In the second, he reports that the total budget for phasing out the Oil-for-Food programme by 21 November, as required by the latest Council resolution, which lifted sanctions on Iraq, is estimated at $106 million, plus a contingency reserve of $16 million. Under the programme, otherwise sanctions-bound Baghdad was allowed to sell oil for food and other humanitarian supplies as well as to pay compensation to victims of its occupation of Kuwait.