Baghdad, Aug. 23 (AKnews) – Iraq will pay $400 million in debts to Egyptian workers after 20 years.
Iraqi Finance Ministry spokesman Zaid Zamel said the government has finally decided that the payment does not conflict with Paris Club Agreement – which scratched debts racked up by Saddam Hussein.
Zamel told AKnews that the government has consulted the experts in legal affairs and the Paris Club about the impact of repaying the workers debt and they confirmed that the debt still needs to be paid because it is not linked to the Egyptian government but rather to private individuals.
“The Finance Ministry will pay the debt to the Egyptian workers from the 2012 budget or from the budget of this year in order to resolve this issue completely,” he said.
The workers were employed by the Iraqi state before the imposition of sanctions on Iraq in 1990 for its invasion of Kuwait. The UN imposed sanctions meant that Iraq was unable to pay the workers who were forced to return to their home country without their wages.
By Jaafar al-Wannan
RN\P
