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STORY: UN / IRAQ KUWAIT
TRT : 4 :28
SOURCE : UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS : NONE
LANGUAGE : ENGLISH / ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE : 17 SEPTEMBER 2025, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior, United Nations Headquarters
17 SEPTEMBER 2025, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. Various shots, Council Members voting on a draft resolution
4. Wide shot, Security Council
5. SOUNDBITE (English) James Kariuki, Deputy Permanent Representative, UK Mission to the UN:
“The United Kingdom welcomes the unanimous support shown by Council Members for this resolution. We welcome the Council’s decision to authorize a Senior Representative with a mandate to support cooperation to locate and return missing Kuwaiti and third-country nationals, and missing Kuwaiti property. We hope the implementation of this resolution will support positive progress to resolve the fate of the missing. In doing so, we hope it will further build and deepen trust between Iraq and Kuwait.”
6. Med shot, Security Council
7. SOUNDBITE (English) John Kelley, Acting Representative of the United States the UN:
“The United States continues to support specific international organizations and their activities that make America safer and more secure. We expect, however, that international organizations, including the UN, contain costs and share the funding burden more fairly among members. The new mechanism authorized today is streamlined and time-bound, in line with the political realities in the region and the Trump Administration’s approach to UN resourcing. We will continue to press for responsibility when it comes to length, cost, and clear end states for this and other UN missions.”
8. Wide shot, Security Council
9. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Lukman Al-Faily, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Iraq to the UN:
“Iraq has shown unparalleled cooperation and the great deal of flexibility in the rounds of negotiations during all stages of discussion of the text. Despite our great disappointment with the text and the short and rushed course of the relevant discussions. Nevertheless, Iraq remains keen on reaching a just, sustainable and mutually satisfactory solution. We also reaffirm our principled and consistent position in terms of relentless efforts to search and find the missing persons or the remains. We look forward to the appropriate support from the United Nations and the international community towards that humanitarian mission.”
10. Wide shot, Security Council
11. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Lukman Al-Faily, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Iraq to the UN:
“We draw the Council's attention to the fact that the current wording of the text undermines the noble humanitarian objective of the draft resolution as it violates the principle of balance and makes my country a party that is adversely affected.”
12. Med shot, Security Council
13. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Tareq AlBanai, Permanent Representative of the State of Kuwait to the UN:
“The State of Kuwait confirms and stresses that this resolution only aims to close the outstanding humanitarian and national files in a just way through appointing a senior representative, solely focusing on following on these files, submitting periodic reports to the security Council that would allow for an objective assessment that would ensure that momentum is maintained and that would guarantee international oversight. The existence of this mechanism enhances transparency and ensures the credibility of the efforts made, and prevents any regression or slowing down that would perpetuate the suffering of families that have been waiting for decades to know the fate of their loved ones.”
14. Med shot, Security Council
15. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Tareq AlBanai, Permanent Representative of the State of Kuwait to the UN:
“The State of Kuwait believes that its bilateral relations with the Republic of Iraq not only positively affect both peoples, but it also has a wider impact on the region as a whole. The success of Iraq to close these humanitarian files and continue its cooperation with the State of Kuwait will directly contribute to creating a more open regional environment in the Gulf. It would enhance the opportunities for Iraq to be naturally integrated in regional cooperation institutions.”
16. Wide shot, Security Council
The Security Council today (17 Sep) unanimously adopted a resolution requesting the Secretary-General to appoint a Senior Representative with a mandate to support cooperation to locate and return missing Kuwaiti and third-country nationals, and missing Kuwaiti property.
United Kingdom is the penholder of the resolution. James Kariuki, UK’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN welcomed the support shown by Council Members
Ambassador Kariuki said, “We hope the implementation of this resolution will support positive progress to resolve the fate of the missing. In doing so, we hope it will further build and deepen trust between Iraq and Kuwait.”
For his part, Acting Representative of the United States John Kelley told the Council that his country “continues to support specific international organizations and their activities that make America safer and more secure.”
“We expect, however, that international organizations, including the UN, contain costs and share the funding burden more fairly among members,” Ambassador Kelley said.
He stressed that the new mechanism authorized today is “streamlined and time-bound, in line with the political realities in the region and the Trump Administration’s approach to UN resourcing.”
The US diplomat concluded, “We will continue to press for responsibility when it comes to length, cost, and clear end states for this and other UN missions.”
Iraqi Ambassador Lukman Al-Faily expressed his country “has shown unparalleled cooperation and the great deal of flexibility in the rounds of negotiations during all stages of discussion of the text.”
“Despite our great disappointment with the text and the short and rushed course of the relevant discussions,” he said.
The Iraqi Ambassador continued, “Nevertheless, Iraq remains keen on reaching a just, sustainable and mutually satisfactory solution.”
He reaffirmed Iraq’s “principled and consistent position in terms of relentless efforts to search and find the missing persons or the remains.”
“We look forward to the appropriate support from the United Nations and the international community towards that humanitarian mission,” Ambassador Al-Faily added.
He also drew the Council's attention to “the fact that the current wording of the text undermines the noble humanitarian objective of the draft resolution as it violates the principle of balance and makes my country a party that is adversely affected.”
For his part, Kuwaiti Ambassador Tareq AlBanai confirmed and stressed that this resolution “only aims to close the outstanding humanitarian and national files in a just way through appointing a senior representative, solely focusing on following on these files, submitting periodic reports to the security Council that would allow for an objective assessment that would ensure that momentum is maintained and that would guarantee international oversight.”
“The existence of this mechanism enhances transparency and ensures the credibility of the efforts made, and prevents any regression or slowing down that would perpetuate the suffering of families that have been waiting for decades to know the fate of their loved ones,” Ambassador AlBanai added.
“The State of Kuwait believes that its bilateral relations with the Republic of Iraq not only positively affect both peoples, but it also has a wider impact on the region as a whole,” the Kuwaiti diploma stressed.
He conclude, “The success of Iraq to close these humanitarian files and continue its cooperation with the State of Kuwait will directly contribute to creating a more open regional environment in the Gulf. It would enhance the opportunities for Iraq to be naturally integrated in regional cooperation institutions.”
