Ikhwanweb :: The Muslim Brotherhood Official English Website

In a bid to strengthen relations with the international community, Iraq has agreed to pay Egypt $408 million in cash to settle old debts owed by Baghdad.

According to an article in Reuters via a government spokesman, the debts go as far back as 20 years to a period when United Nations sanctions following the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait blocked the payment of salaries that were due to hundreds of thousands of Egyptian labourers who worked in Iraq in the 1980s.

After years of instability following the invasion, Iraq's security and oil-dependent economy have improved and now Prime Minister Nur al-Maliki's government hopes to cultivate better ties with the region’s countries and foreign creditors.