KUWAIT STRONGLY PROTESTS NEW LANGUAGE ON

C O N F I D E N T I A L KUWAIT 002163

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/21/2013
TAGS: PREL IZ KU UN
SUBJECT: KUWAIT STRONGLY PROTESTS NEW LANGUAGE ON
COMPENSATION IN DRAFT UNSC RESOLUTION ON IRAQ


Classified By: Ambassador Richard H. Jones, reasons 1.5 b and d.


1. (C) MFA's Director General for International
Organizations, Ambassador Abd al-Hamid al-Awadi, called the
Ambassador at home late in the evening of May 20. Al-Awadi
explained that he had been instructed to contact the
Ambassador at this late hour by First Deputy Prime Minister
and Foreign Minister, Shaykh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah, in
order to register Kuwait's deep concern with Operative
Paragraph 21 of the proposed new UN Security Council
resolution on Iraq. At Shaykh Sabah's request, al-Awadi
would also be contacting the Ambassadors of the UK and Spain
and would instruct Kuwait's embassies in Washington, Madrid
and London to make parallel demarches. According to
al-Awadi, the Kuwaiti delegation had worked out mutually
acceptable language for the operative paragraph (which deals
with using oil revenues to fund compensation claims by
victims of the 1990-91 Gulf War) with USUN on Thursday, May

15. The GOK was shocked when it saw that the US side had
changed the agreed language without further consultation
with Kuwait. He claimed that USUN had told the Kuwaiti
delegation in New York that it also was unaware of the
genesis of the change, which had come from Washington.


2. (C) In response to the Ambassador's questions, al-Awadi
said that Kuwait was particularly concerned by a new clause
in the paragraph that would allow a future internationally
recognized Iraqi government and the governing board of the UN
Compensation Commission to change arrangements for the
funding of compensation claims. He said that Kuwait would
much prefer that such decisions "not be transferred to
Geneva" but remain in the hands of the UN Security Council
alone. In response to a further question, he said that he
had no guidance on whether Kuwait might be able to accept
substituting the UNSC for the UNCC governing board in the
currently proposed language. Shaykh Sabah had only told him
to protest the change from the previously agreed language and
urge a return to it. He added that Shaykh Sabah felt
strongly that Kuwait had made significant compromises
throughout the draft resolution and believed that this should
be taken fully into account as Washington considered his
request. The Ambassador agreed to convey these points to the
Department.


3. (C) COMMENT: It is quite unusual for an MFA official to
contact the Ambassador at home at such a late hour. This no
doubt reflects the high anxiety that the GOK evidently feels
about the new language in Operative Paragraph 21 of the draft
UNSC resolution. We are not sure why the GOK would object so
strongly to a delegation of authority for compensation
funding decisions from the UNSC to the UNCC governing board,
since according to al-Awadi, the country membership is the
same for both bodies. However, we presume that it may have
something to do with differences in procedures between them
such as lack of P-5 veto power, or perhaps with a perception
that transferring authority to Geneva would lead to a
diminution of international attention to compensation.

JONES