Iraq wins one-year reprieve on Gulf War reparations due to crisis

Stehpanie Nebehay reports for Reuters:

A United Nations body agreed on Thursday to let Iraq postpone its final payment of reparations to Kuwait for the 1990-91 Gulf War, in an effort to help ease Baghdad's cash-strapped budget. The consensus decision, reached by major powers at the U.N. Compensation Commission (UNCC), means Iraq will have until Jan. 2016 to begin paying its oil-rich neighbor $4.6 billion for oil fields destroyed during its invasion and seven-month occupation. Iraq's economy is being battered by low oil prices and war with Islamic State militants who control the north and west, leading the government of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to request the delay.

"The Governing Council adopted a decision agreeing to a postponement of Iraq's requirement to deposit five percent of oil proceeds until 1 January, 2016," Leah Kraft, legal officer of the UNCC, told Reuters. In a statement issued after the closed-door special session, the UNCC said it had taken into account "the extraordinarily difficult security circumstances in Iraq and the unusual budgetary challenges associated with confronting this issue".