UN to begin maritime border patrols

The U.N. will begin maritime patrols between Iraq and Kuwait in 1998, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan announced during his three day visit to Kuwait to inspect the UN forces monitoring the 200 hundred km. long border between the two countries.

Those forces are now monitoring the marine borders between them using helicopters.

UN Mission Forces for Kuwait and Iraq were set up after the Iraqi invasion of the small Gulf state was foiled in the 1991 Gulf War.

Annan flew to Kuwait from Iran where he had attended last week's Islamic Summit and went directly to the headquarters of the UN Iraq-Kuwait observation mission (UNIKOM) to meet with forces committees, the Kuwaiti news agency KUNA said.