Kuwait receives 200,000 stolen books from Iraq

KUWAIT: The Iraqi foreign ministry handed its Kuwaiti counterpart yesterday around 200,000 books belonging to the National Library and Kuwait University which were looted during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990. The move resulted from cooperation between the foreign ministries of the two brotherly countries, said Deputy Assistant Foreign Minister for International Organizations Abdulaziz Al-Jarallah. He stressed that Kuwait is still urging the Iraqi side to hand over all the national archives and Kuwaiti properties that were looted systematically during the Iraqi invasion.

The handover process was done under the supervision of the United Nations and the UNAMI mission in Iraq, in implementation of Security Council resolution (2107) issued in 2013. Iraqi Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Ambassador Hazim Al-Yousifi said in a statement to KUNA that his country is keen to abide by relevant Security Council resolutions regarding Kuwait and to give it back what was looted during the Iraqi invasion.

He affirmed Iraq’s keenness to consolidate brotherly relations between the two sides, recalling the recent visit of HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah to Iraq and President Barham Saleh’s visit to Kuwait and relevant positive and constructive results. He pointed out that Iraq’s foreign ministry has made great efforts to restore and collect the archives looted by the former regime. Yousifi expressed his happiness at the positive results achieved so far, stressing Iraq’s resolve to continue the approach of developing brotherly relations.

Representative of the United Nations Secretary General Resident Coordinator Dr Tarek Al-Sheikh expressed in a similar statement his aspiration to continue efforts to enhance constructive cooperation between the two countries. The Kuwaiti-Iraqi moves are in line with the principle of establishing peace and brotherhood among the countries of the world, Sheikh said. – KUNA

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