Iraq announces committee to develop Kuwait ties

Iraq's government will form a Supreme Political Committee to negotiate outstanding issues between Iraq and Kuwait, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi's office said on Sunday.

Al-Kadhimi and Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah chaired talks "to enhance cooperation between the two countries, in the sectors of the economy, health, trade, investment, energy, transportation, and others", read the office's statement carried by state media.

The Iraqi premier expressed a desire to respect international resolutions between the two countries and said they "must learn from the past" with the Kuwaiti Prime Minister, Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, thanking Iraq for "their role in searching for the remains of the missing Kuwaiti victims of the former regime". 

In 1990, Iraq's then-President Saddam Hussein ordered the invasion and occupation of Kuwait, which lasted seven months. 

Hussein accused Kuwait of slant-drilling across its northern border to steal Iraqi oil, which the Gulf kingdom denied.

As a country itself rich in oil, most people in Kuwait saw the invasion as Iraq's attempt to steal its resource, which resulted in the destruction of neighbourhoods, the torture and killing of Kuwaitis, and oil wells being destroyed. 

Citing an Iraqi official, Anadolu reported earlier this year that Iraq has paid nearly $50 billion in war reparations to Kuwait and that the remaining $2.5 billion will be repaid in roughly a year.