The United Kingdom remains committed to working with Iraq, Kuwait, and the Tripartite Commission to provide answers for families of missing loved ones: UK statement at the UN Security Council
Statement by Ambassador Kate Foster, UK Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, at the UN Security Council meeting on the situation between Iraq and Kuwait.
The consequences of conflict do not end when arms are laid down.
For families of those who remain missing, uncertainty over the fate of a loved one can endure for generations.
Helping families to know the fate of their loved ones is an enduring humanitarian imperative.
President, 315 Kuwaiti and third-country nationals remain missing, and there have been no new identifications were made since the Secretary-General’s last report.
This underlines both the difficulty of the task and the importance of sustaining our efforts and pursuing every credible avenue that could provide families with answers.
We welcome the work of the Secretary-General’s Senior Representative, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Tripartite Commission.
And the United Kingdom is proud to support these efforts as a member of the Commission.
We also welcome the practical steps being taken including DNA analysis, the use of geospatial tools, the revised communication strategy and renewed calls for witnesses.
We hope these approaches can help unlock further progress.
But technology alone cannot provide all of the answers.
Credible witness information remains essential, and the number of potential witnesses will diminish with time.
We therefore encourage anyone who may hold relevant information to come forward, and all those involved to continue efforts to identify potential witnesses and following up every credible lead.
It will also be important to establish a shared and practical basis for measuring progress.
We encourage the Tripartite Commission to agree practical indicators that can help focus collective efforts, and provide an objective basis for assessing progress ahead of the Council’s review in 2028.
President, we also encourage renewed engagement on the separate issue of missing Kuwaiti property, including the national archives.
This should include the resumption of the Joint Committee on missing Kuwaiti property.
Finally, the mechanism established by Resolution 2792 provides an opportunity to sustain cooperation and build mutual trust.
We welcome the Senior Representative’s continued engagement with both countries, and we will continue to support her mandate.
The United Kingdom remains committed to working with Iraq, Kuwait, and our partners in the Tripartite Commission towards our shared goal: providing answers to families who have waited for far too long.