Baghdad , Iraq ( CNN ) -- Iraq has appointed its first ambassador to Kuwait in two decades , the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said Tuesday . Mohammed Hussein Bahr Al-Ulum was appointed to the post , the ministry said . While Iraq has had an embassy and a chargé d'affaires in Kuwait since the regime of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein fell in 2003 , it has not had an ambassador there since Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990 . That invasion resulted in the United States ' launching Operation Desert Storm , its first Iraq war , in 1991 . Kuwaiti 's Kuna state news agency also reported the appointment , saying , `` Iraqi-Kuwaiti relations have been developing since the fall of the Baath regime , with both nations expressing desires to develop bilateral relations . '' In February 2009 , a Kuwaiti envoy made his country 's highest-level visit to Iraq since the invasion . Sheikh Mohammed Sabah al-Salem al-Sabah , Kuwait 's deputy prime minister and foreign minister , said at the time that Kuwait wanted to strengthen and develop ties between the two nations , and congratulated Iraq on its recent provincial elections . `` This is Iraq which we have wagered on and we congratulate the Iraqis for this , '' al-Sabah said , according to Kuwait 's official news agency . Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki , who met with the delegation during the trip last year , said in a statement he told the Kuwaitis that the Hussein regime `` harmed Arab relations . '' `` Some Arabs still view Iraq the same way they did under Saddam , but we tell them Iraq today is built on a constitution and on democracy , '' al-Maliki said at the time .
Iraq has not had ambassador to Iraq since Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990 . That incursion led Kuwait to launch Operation Desert Storm , its first Iraq war . New ambassador is al-Maliki , U.S. says .