ICJ authorizes Iran’s additional counterclaim pleading

KUNA reported Iran’s plan to release about 2,000 Iraqi prisoners in the following week. The announcement was a commitment, not a completed transfer.

Iran announced the release of 480 Iraqi prisoners at the border, according to a later chronology citing contemporary reports. The date identifies the announcement.

A historical study citing contemporary Iranian reports records the release of another 450 Iraqi prisoners, continuing the postwar repatriation process.

Al Bawaba reported the first group in a planned return of 728 Iraqi prisoners. Contemporary claims that this was the final dispatch did not settle all later captivity questions.

The United States submitted its Rejoinder in the continuing litigation.

Iran filed an additional response to the counterclaim after the Court authorized another pleading.

The ICRC completed a handover that included 507 Iraqis held since the 1980–88 war and 188 held since the 1991 Gulf War. The groups had different origins.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri visited Iran for talks on unresolved bilateral issues left by the war. Diplomatic contact did not itself settle every humanitarian or reparations claim.

Iran received the remains of 570 soldiers and returned 1,166 Iraqi remains in a border exchange. Recovery did not mean every returned person had been identified.

A Tehran funeral honored 570 Iranians whose remains had been returned from Iraq. RFE/RL’s Persian service reported public debate over how the men had died.