The Iraqi central bank announced that the Iraqi government has paid the last installment of its war reparations to Kuwait worth $44 million.
The last payment marks the end of Iraq’s 30-year commitment to pay reparations for invading Kuwait during the regime of Saddam Hussein.
“The payment of the last remaining installment of the State of Kuwait’s compensation amounting to $44 million has been completed, thus Iraq has completed the full payment of the compensation amounts approved by the United Nations Compensation Committee of the UN Security Council pursuant to Resolution 687 of 1991, with a total of $52.4 billion,” the statement released by the central bank read.
The Iraqi government had paid $490 million in early November. At the time, the government had announced that the payments would end in early 2022.
The recent rise in oil prices likely aided Iraq to finish out the payments earlier than previously announced. The oil rich country was able to finance the payment of the reparations by imposing a 2 percent tax on Iraqi oil and petroleum product sales.
