UNITED NATIONS – Kuwait has urged the UN Security Council to appoint a high-level coordinator or a special representative of the Secretary General to deal with “all” Iraq's outstanding obligations toward Kuwait as the UN high-level coordinator for missing Kuwaitis and property, Gennady Tarasov, is relinquishing his post at the end of this year, reported the Kuwaiti news agency KUNA, Saturday. In a letter to Security Council President Ambassador Nestor Osorio of Colombia, Kuwaiti Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Foreign Affairs Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah said Kuwait “appreciate the great efforts” made by Tarasov to fulfil his mandate and “wishes him all success” in his future endeavors. “Kuwait, therefore, hopes that the Security Council will appoint another high-level Coordinator or a Special Representative of the Secretary-General to replace Ambassador Tarasov to continue following up implementation of the obligations set out in (relevant) Security Council resolutions (and) would appreciate if such a high-level coordinator or special representative were to follow up on all of Iraq's outstanding international obligations (toward Kuwait),” Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled said in his letter. If the Council agrees with the Kuwaiti proposal, it will have to adopt a resolution changing the high-level coordinator's mandate from dealing with only the issues of the missing Kuwaitis and property to a wider mandate that would include, besides these two humanitarian issues, all Iraq's other outstanding obligations toward Kuwait, ranging from compensation to maintenance of the border markers. The mandate of the high-level coordinator for missing Kuwaitis and third country citizens and missing Kuwaiti property was established in 1999 by Council resolution 1284. The first UN official to occupy the post was the late Yuli Vorontsov, who was succeeded by Tarasov. In the letter, Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled mentioned Iraq's outstanding obligations towards Kuwait pursuant to Council resolutions adopted under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. The Council called on Iraq and Kuwait in a press statement issued last month “to explore other arrangements to ensure continued cooperation in the search for missing persons, property and the Kuwaiti archives” and agreed to finance the continuation of Tarasov's activities until the end of this year. He expressed Kuwait's satisfaction with the “noticeable progress” that has been made in bilateral relations between Kuwait and Iraq at various levels, as evidenced by the exchange of visits at the highest levels and the significant agreements reached by the two states at the most recent meeting of the Joint Ministerial Committee in April 2012. He also commended Iraq's “sincere efforts and desire to fulfil its international obligations towards Kuwait,” vowing that Kuwait “stands ready to provide Iraq with the support it needs” – SG
