Kuwaiti parliament agrees on speaker’s visit to Iraq

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Kuwait’s Ummah Council (parliament) agreed Wednesday on its speaker’s visit to Iraq in response to his Iraqi counterpart’s invitation, according to an official statement. “The council agreed to the visit of Speaker Jassem al-Khurafi to Iraq in response to the invitation made by his Iraqi counterpart Iyad al-Samarraie during his recent visit to Kuwait last month,” the statement said. Samarraie had paid a visit to Kuwait on July 5, 2009 and had talks with the Kuwaiti side on means to come up with solutions to pending issues between the two countries. Iraqi-Kuwaiti relations had been recently strained after a battle of words between the two sides after Kuwait officially declined to write off compensations afforded by Iraq at a rate of five percent of its oil proceeds. Kuwait has also refused an Iraqi request to move the issues contained in the UN Security Council resolutions to bilateral relations so that Iraq may get out of Chapter VII of the UN Charter after it had invaded Kuwait in 1990. SH (P) 1