Iraq to pay $408 million Gulf War debt to Egyptians

[Dino Velvet]

http://news.yahoo.com/iraq-pay-408-m...144339028.html

Iraq to pay $408 million Gulf War debt to Egyptians

Reuters – 4 hrs ago


BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq said on Saturday it had agreed to pay $408 million to hundreds of thousands of Egyptian workers who fled Iraq because of Saddam Hussein's 1990-91 invasion of Kuwait.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari signed a memorandum of understanding during a visit to Egypt this week, his office said, under which Baghdad agreed to make the payments to resolve the cases known as "yellow remittances".
Hundreds of thousands of Egyptian workers are still owed back pay after fleeing Iraq following Saddam's invasion of Kuwait.
Saddam's invasion of Kuwait led to the 1991 Gulf War, when U.S.-led forces drove Iraqi troops from Kuwait but left Saddam in power for another 12 years. U.S. troops returned to topple Saddam in a second invasion in 2003 and stayed until last December.
Iraq has made an effort to resolve Gulf War-era disputes with other Arab states ahead of a March 27-29 summit of Arab leaders, the first time the Arab League has gathered in the Iraqi capital since the 1991 Gulf War.
Earlier this week Iraq reached a $500 million deal with Kuwait to resolve a dispute over aircraft and plane parts that Saddam's forces took during the invasion. That dispute had made it difficult for Iraqi Airways to fly to Western cities without risking the confiscation of its planes.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government is heralding the Arab League summit as the debut of post-Saddam Iraq at the centre of regional politics, following the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

[Prospero]

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Mid...#axzz1pP6MNTkU

[Dino Velvet]

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Mid...#axzz1pP6MNTkU

What a sweet couple, huh? How about Bashar's musical choices?

Listen to this nice song while thinking of those two.

[buttslinger]

Four hundred eight million? CHUMP CHANGE!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/feb/08/usa.iraq1

[hippifried]

What a bunch of bogus bullshit. This is just piling on. How many Egyptians were working there? $408 billion worth? I'm sure that's a big drop from what was originally demanded.

Before I go any further, let me just say that motivation has nothing to do with the argument I'm about to give. I have my own ideas of why all that shit happened, but it's totally irrelevant why Sadam did what he did or why anybody bothered to react the way they did. In this case anyway.

That said: Iraq did not invade itself. They invaded Kuwait. Does the Emirate owe outrageous amounts of money to the foreign workers there who bailed out in a hurry? The workers in Iraq weren't running from Iraqis or Sadam. They were running from US bombs. It was a third party interference. The Egyptians in Iraq didn't lose their jobs because of the invasion of Kuwait. It was because of the invasion of Iraq. This is a bad precident. Real bad. The people who are paying now were under the thumb of a dictator then. It's not like any of them had control over what happened. It happened 20 years ago. Even if you can make the case for back pay, do the math. All I can go by is the standard here. That would be triple damages + interest. Een with a punitie award (for whatever lame excuse) & compound interest, you can't get to that figure. Not even if they had contracts with guarenteed income for life. This is just a case of soaking the loser. Iraq needs better lawyers.

[hippifried]

Oh shit. I could have sworn it said "billion". Never mind.