Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Multilateral and Legal Affairs Presides the Iraq Delegation to the Special Session of the Governing Council of the United Nations Compensation Commission

The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Multilateral and Legal Affairs, Dr Qahtan Taha Khalaf, has presided the delegation of the Republic of Iraq, in the special session of the Governing Council of the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC) to discuss the conclusion of the work of the said committee, and thereby paving the way for the issuance of a resolution by the UN Security Council, according to which Iraq is exempted from the provisions of (Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations).
The Undersecretary gave Iraq’s speech at the aforementioned session, in which he noted that Iraq had fulfilled its obligations within the compensation file despite the economic, security and political challenges that Iraq faced decades ago. The Undersecretary called for the members of the Commission’s Governing Council (representatives of the fifteen member states of the Security Council) to make the necessary recommendations from their countries to issue a UN resolution from the Security Council that values Iraq’s commitment to the relevant Council resolutions, concludes the work of the committee, closes the compensation file permanently, and lifts Iraq from the provisions of Chapter VII, according to which the Security Council resolutions were issued. The aforementioned session was held to conclude the work of the United Nations Compensation Committee, which was established under (UN Security Council Resolutions 687 and 692 in 1991), after Iraq fulfilled all its financial obligations within the compensation file, which lasted for more than three decades.
Ms Tatiana Valuvia, Director-General of the United Nations Office in Geneva has attended the session, which witnessed giving a speech by the Chairman of the Committee of Financial Experts from Iraq in which he renewed Iraq’s demand to conclude and close this file while reserving Iraq’s right not to file future claims within the compensation file.
A number of members of the Committee’s Governing Council of representatives of states (the United States, the United Kingdom, Kenya, the Russian Federation, France, China, Mexico) also gave speeches in which they commended Iraq’s commitment to pay more than $52 billion in implementation of its pledges in the compensation file, noting at the same time that this file represents a success story for the United Nations, and the international community and Iraq.