Kuwait MPs have overwhelmingly ratified the $500-million settlement deal to end the 22-year-old dispute between Kuwaiti Airways Corporation (KAC) and Iraqi Airways.
Iraqi Airways agreed in July to pay the compensation to KAC for damages caused by Saddam Hussein’s troops during the 1990-91 invasion of Kuwait. Kuwait says 10 of its planes as well as aircraft parts were plundered after its airport was seized during the invasion, reports AFP.
Kuwait’s Communications Minister, Salem al-Othaina, who also chairs KAC, said Iraq has deposited the full $500 million in a special bank account, and this will be available for Kuwait to withdraw following ratification of the settlement.
The settlement amounts to less than half of the $1.2 billion KAC claimed it was owed.
Several outstanding issues are still to be sorted out between the two Arab neighbours including the payment by Baghdad of around $20 billion in war reparations and about $16 billion in debt.
