Kuwait, Iraq agree on 500-metre buffer zone
Kuwait will build 50 homes for Iraqi citizens under a bilateral deal to create a 500-metre buffer zone between the two countries and relocate the residents close to the border, a Kuwaiti official reportedly said.
According to the bilateral agreement, Kuwait will furnish the replacement homes and will build schools and hospitals for Iraqis, Jassem Al Mubaraki, the head of the foreign ministry Arab world division, said.
The relocation of the Iraqis will allow a better monitoring of the borders between the two countries and the 500-metre no man’s zone on either side will not be used for any activity.
“The houses of the Iraqis obscure border signs, so we request that their homes be shifted inside Iraq to facilitate the monitoring of the borders,” Al Mubaraki said. “Kuwait pledged to build schools and hospitals,” he said.
Iraq’s former regime invaded Kuwait in August 1990 and following a US-led war that ejected them, Kuwait has been pushing for the clear demarcation of the borders with its neighbour to the north.
In 1993, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 833 demarcating the land border between the two countries.
Iraq has repeatedly called for the lifting of the sanctions imposed by the Security Council under Chapter Seven of the UN Charter, saying that it did not have the required financial resources.
However, Kuwaiti lawmakers have invariably said that the request cannot be considered unless the borderissue was properly addressed and war reparations paid.
