Kathleen Ridolfo
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Prague, Czech Republic
December 8, 2003

Iraqi Finance Minister Kamil al-Kaylani has said that Iraq will soon demand that Syria turn over an estimated $3 billion in Iraqi cash assets held in its banks on behalf of the former Hussein regime, Reuters reported on 3 December. The $3 billion equals between 20 percent and 30 percent of Syria’s gross domestic product, according to Reuters. “All of the money belongs to Iraq. An Iraqi delegation will travel in the next few weeks to Damascus,” Kaylani told a Baghdad press conference this week. He said the funds held in Syria came from Syria’s illegal sale of oil on behalf of the Hussein regime in contravention of UN sanctions, and from selling nonmilitary goods to the Iraqi Military Industrialization Organization. Officials in Syria deny that the country is holding $3 billion in Iraqi funds, and have said the figure is much lower. “The amount [of Iraqi assets] is in hundreds of millions of dollars. This has been made clear to an Iraqi delegation who visited [Damascus] for talks on the assets,” one Syrian official told Reuters. Syrian Economic Minister Ghassan al-Rifai told reporters in October that Iraqi funds held in Syrian banks amount to far less than $1 billion.