Ban Arrives in Baghdad

UN Chief Ban Ki-moon arrived in Baghdad on Thursday for talks with Iraqi officials, after a visit to neighboring Kuwait.

Shortly after his arrival Ban went into a meeting with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, state television, Iraqiya said without providing further details.

There are various outstanding issues between Iraq and Kuwait stemming from Iraq’s 1990 invasion of its neighbor to the south. Baghdad currently pays five percent of its oil and gas revenue into a special United Nations fund that pays compensation to Kuwait.

Ban said in Kuwait on Wednesday that he is “committed to normalization and to ensuring that Iraq fulfils all of its outstanding international obligations regarding Kuwait as the Security Council has mandated”.

“Tomorrow I will visit Iraq and share the same message I bring today: it is time to usher in a new era of cooperation between the two neighbours,” he said.

The visit also comes at a time of high tensions between Iraq’s federal government and the autonomous Kurdistan region, during which military reinforcements have been sent to disputed areas in the country’s north.