Iran has no basis demanding war reparations: Iraqi officials

“The cause of the eight-year war was the Iraqi and Iranian regimes and was no fault of the [two country’s] people.”

Kosar Nawzad 2018/08/19 16:08

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iran has no basis for demands of war reparations, and Iraqis cannot bear the responsibility for the crimes of Saddam Hussein’s regime, officials told the London-based Asharq al-Awsat media outlet on Saturday.

The statements by various Iraqi officials and former officials comes after Iranian Parliament’s head of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Heshmatullah Falahatpisha spoke with ISNA stating that the country can pay Iran’s war compensation, adding that they expect this to be implemented.

“The cause of the eight-year war was the Iraqi and Iranian regimes and was no fault of the [two country’s] people,” the newly-elected Member of Parliament (MP), Ahmed al-Jubouri, said.

“Regardless of who began the conflict,” Jubouri continued, “it is unreasonable to open the topic of compensation after about 30 years and when the Iranian regime still exists and the Iraqi one has fallen.”

According to Dr. Basil Hussein, deputy head of the Iraqi Center for Strategic Studies, the reparations “issue is political and is not based on international law or UN Security Council resolutions.”

“There is no justification for Iranian demands of compensation for the war,” Hussein added, noting the UN “resolution 598 does not point to reparations.”

Joining the other notable Iraqis, former government spokesperson Ali al-Dabbagh stated the demand for war compensation was not a formal request from the Iranian government.

“Iraqis cannot continue to bear [the responsibility for] the crimes of the former regime,” he added.

However, Falahatpisha pointed to Iraq’s April announcement to resume reparation payments to Kuwait—put on hold in October 2014 due to budgetary constraints as the country was fighting the Islamic State—for the destruction of the neighbor’s oil fields and facilities during the early 90s Gulf War.

“We expect that the payments of Iran also commence and [we expect to] begin holding negotiations,” he concluded.

Iranian officials’ demands for reparations began a few days after the US announcement of renewed sanctions on the country, which is experiencing ongoing protests in response to high unemployment and inflation.

Mahmoud Sadeghi, a member of the Majlis and representative of Tehran, in a tweet claimed that Iraq owes Iran USD 1.1 trillion as reparations for the eight-year Iran-Iraq war.

MP Sadeghi’s words, backed by vice-president Massoumeh Ebtekar, lamented Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s decision to abide by the re-imposed sanctions on Iran.

During a press briefing in early August, Abadi said Iraq would not react to the US-Iran dispute, but said Baghdad would obey the sanctions.

However, addressing reporters on Aug. 13, the Iraqi Prime Minister stepped back from his comments and said he had not made any decision on behalf of the Iraqi government to abide by the US sanctions on Iran, claiming he had only described the case.

“I described the case, condemned the US sanctions on Iran, and said the sanctions are unjust and we do not sympathize with them. This is not a decision but an opinion,” Abadi stated.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany