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| Baker to discuss Iraq’s debts with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait | |
| 2004-01-22 | |
| EFL One can only hope that the people of Iraq appreciate what the Bush administration and Baker in particular are doing to unsaddle them from stifling debt to allow them a brighter future. US special envoy for Iraqi debt, James Baker, will visit Kuwait and Saudi Arabia yesterday (tomorrow?) after securing promises from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar to waive most of Iraq’s debts to the two states. Baker "had a successful and productive meeting in the UAE and in Qatar on the subject of Iraqi debts," a US administration official accompanying the special envoy said. The UAE announced Tuesday it would write off the bulk of some US$4 billion owed by Iraq to the oil-rich Gulf state. Saudi newspapers, quoting official sources, reported in October that Riyadh would only reschedule, not write off, an estimated US$28 billion owed by Iraq. Saudi Arabia pledged US$1 billion of aid to Iraq at an international donors conference in Madrid in October. Half would be extended through the Saudi Development Fund and the balance used to "finance and guarantee exports to Iraq." The former secretary of state has already visited Europe and Asia with Washington’s message that Iraq’s debt hampers US-led efforts to put that country on course for democracy and prosperity. Earlier this month, Kuwait said Baker was not expected to include the issue of billions of dollars in war reparations Baghdad owes the emirate for its 1990 invasion and subsequent seven-month occupation. Kuwait has filed compensation claims worth US$170 billion to the UN Compensation Commission, which has already approved some US$37 billion to the emirate and actually paid about US$9 billion. Unofficial estimates put the amount of Iraq’s debt to Kuwait at around US$15 billion without interest. Most of the Kuwaiti money was given to Baghdad in the 1980s when Iraq was at war with neighboring Iran.
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| Posted by:Gasse Katze |
| #2 MOAB - excellent! LOL |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-1-22 12:18:59 PM |
| #1 The Saudi's are about to be introduced to the MOAB (Mother Of All Briefcases). |
| Posted by: PBMcL 2004-1-22 12:03:30 PM |