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Security Council urges Iraq to cooperate on missing Kuwaitis
20 December – Expressing deep concern over the plight of Kuwaitis who have been missing since the Iraqi invasion of their country in 1990, members of the Security Council today urged Baghdad to cooperate on the issue.

Speaking to reporters on behalf of Council members, the body's President, Ambassador Sergey Lavrov of the Russian Federation, also voiced concern over missing third country nationals. He said Council members hoped the issue of all missing persons would be dealt with "as a strictly humanitarian one by both sides."

The President made his comments following a closed-door briefing by the Secretary-General's High-level Coordinator on the matter, Ambassador Yuli Vorontsov.

According to the Council President, the members "urged Iraq to fully cooperate with Ambassador Vorontsov and with all other agencies and bodies dealing with this issue."

Council members also reiterated their call for the return of Kuwait's national archives and expressed hope that the issue of Kuwaiti property would be dealt with expeditiously.

A recent report by Secretary-General Kofi Annan notes that Iraq has refused to cooperate with Ambassador Vorontsov and stresses that a dialogue between the two "would constitute an indispensable step towards resolving this humanitarian problem."