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UNSC gets update on Iraq''s compliance with Compensation Fund, disarmament
1/17/2012 8:45:00 PM
obligations By Salwa Jendoubi UNITED NATIONS, Jan 17 (KUNA) -- UN Security Council on Tuesday got an update from the UN Secretariat on Iraq's compliance with its Compensation Fund and disarmament obligations.
"There is no change as a result of the consultations. It was a quick update, " British Deputy Permanent Representative Philip J. Parham told KUNA following the closed-door consultations.
The UN Controller Maria Eugenia Casar briefed the Council on Iraq's compliance with its obligation regarding the Development Fund for Iraq (DFI) and the Compensation Fund, through which Iraq has to pay five percent of its oil proceeds to Kuwait and other victims of the 1990 Iraqi invasion.
The Council also got a briefing on a progress report on Iraq's compliance with its Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) obligations by Deputy High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Hannelore Hoppe.
The Council had before it two reports on both issues.
Earlier this month Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in a report to the Council he was satisfied with Iraq's continued transfer of the five percent of its oil proceeds to the Compensation Fund, in compliance with relevant Council resolutions, but cautioned that an audit of the successor account to the Development Fund for Iraq (DFI) is needed.
In that report, Ban expressed his "appreciation to the Government of Iraq for its maintenance of the mechanism for the transfer of the five per cent of oil proceeds, and its continued cooperation with the Compensation Commission." However, he added that "while all the indicators are positive and suggest that the Government of Iraq is compliant with its obligations .. only after an audit has been conducted on the successor account to the Development Fund for Iraq will it be possible to confirm this conclusion." Ban said the Governing Council of the Geneva-based Compensation Commission has been "actively monitoring" the developments following the expiration of the mandate of the International Advisory and Monitoring Board (IAMB) for Iraq on June 30, 2011 and the transfer since then of the oversight, control, reporting, and use of the Iraqi oil export revenues to the Iraqi Committee of Financial Experts (COFE.) COFE has appointed the US firm of Ernst Young to conduct the 2011 audit of the Development Fund for Iraq and its successor account.
He said that since COFE took over the oversight function of the Iraqi oil sales from the IAMB last June, Kuwait received from the Compensation Commission two payments of more than one USD billion each: the first was on July 28th and the second on October 27th.
Kuwait, he added, is expected to receive the next payment, of approximately the same amount, on the 26th of this month.
The UN Compensation Commission was set up by the Security Council in 1991 to process claims and pay compensation for losses resulting from Iraq's invasion and occupation of Kuwait in August 1990. Compensation is payable to successful claimants from a Fund that now receives five percent of the proceeds from Iraqi oil sales.
On Iraq's compliance with its disarmament obligations, Ban said in a second report that, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iraq, and since 17 February 2010, has continued to implement the Additional Protocol to the Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement provisionally pending its entry into force.
He also said in the second report that the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons reported that Iraq had acceded to the Chemical Weapons Convention in January, 2009 and that the Convention entered into force one month later.
He noted that the initial technical inspection to various former production and storage facilities was carried out in Iraq from May 1-4 last year by the Technical Secretariat of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which concluded that the Iraqi Government "is continuing its cooperation with the Organization to implement the Convention." (end) sj.bs
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1/17/2012 8:45:00 PM
obligations By Salwa Jendoubi UNITED NATIONS, Jan 17 (KUNA) -- UN Security Council on Tuesday got an update from the UN Secretariat on Iraq's compliance with its Compensation Fund and disarmament obligations.
"There is no change as a result of the consultations. It was a quick update, " British Deputy Permanent Representative Philip J. Parham told KUNA following the closed-door consultations.
The UN Controller Maria Eugenia Casar briefed the Council on Iraq's compliance with its obligation regarding the Development Fund for Iraq (DFI) and the Compensation Fund, through which Iraq has to pay five percent of its oil proceeds to Kuwait and other victims of the 1990 Iraqi invasion.
The Council also got a briefing on a progress report on Iraq's compliance with its Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) obligations by Deputy High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Hannelore Hoppe.
The Council had before it two reports on both issues.
Earlier this month Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in a report to the Council he was satisfied with Iraq's continued transfer of the five percent of its oil proceeds to the Compensation Fund, in compliance with relevant Council resolutions, but cautioned that an audit of the successor account to the Development Fund for Iraq (DFI) is needed.
In that report, Ban expressed his "appreciation to the Government of Iraq for its maintenance of the mechanism for the transfer of the five per cent of oil proceeds, and its continued cooperation with the Compensation Commission." However, he added that "while all the indicators are positive and suggest that the Government of Iraq is compliant with its obligations .. only after an audit has been conducted on the successor account to the Development Fund for Iraq will it be possible to confirm this conclusion." Ban said the Governing Council of the Geneva-based Compensation Commission has been "actively monitoring" the developments following the expiration of the mandate of the International Advisory and Monitoring Board (IAMB) for Iraq on June 30, 2011 and the transfer since then of the oversight, control, reporting, and use of the Iraqi oil export revenues to the Iraqi Committee of Financial Experts (COFE.) COFE has appointed the US firm of Ernst Young to conduct the 2011 audit of the Development Fund for Iraq and its successor account.
He said that since COFE took over the oversight function of the Iraqi oil sales from the IAMB last June, Kuwait received from the Compensation Commission two payments of more than one USD billion each: the first was on July 28th and the second on October 27th.
Kuwait, he added, is expected to receive the next payment, of approximately the same amount, on the 26th of this month.
The UN Compensation Commission was set up by the Security Council in 1991 to process claims and pay compensation for losses resulting from Iraq's invasion and occupation of Kuwait in August 1990. Compensation is payable to successful claimants from a Fund that now receives five percent of the proceeds from Iraqi oil sales.
On Iraq's compliance with its disarmament obligations, Ban said in a second report that, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iraq, and since 17 February 2010, has continued to implement the Additional Protocol to the Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement provisionally pending its entry into force.
He also said in the second report that the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons reported that Iraq had acceded to the Chemical Weapons Convention in January, 2009 and that the Convention entered into force one month later.
He noted that the initial technical inspection to various former production and storage facilities was carried out in Iraq from May 1-4 last year by the Technical Secretariat of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which concluded that the Iraqi Government "is continuing its cooperation with the Organization to implement the Convention." (end) sj.bs
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