Friday, April 01, 2011

KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait’s Cabinet resigned Thursday over regional turmoil, the country’s official news agency said, in an apparent reference to the political unrest in neighboring Bahrain.
In a fresh blow for Arab-Persian ties across the Gulf, Kuwait announced Thursday it is to expel a number of Iranian diplomats for links to a spy ring that dates back to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Iran dismissed the case Thursday as a “conspiracy.”
Kuwait’s emir later issued a decree accepting Cabinet’s resignation.

The resignations come after MPs filed petitions to question in Parliament three ministers who are senior members of Kuwait’s Al-Sabah ruling family over a variety of allegations including Bahrain, corruption and failure to perform duty.
The state-run KUNA agency said the Cabinet resigned because of “recent local developments” and the “negative aftershocks on the country’s national unity, security and stability.”
It quoted Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Roudhan Abdulaziz al-Raudan as saying “the Kuwaiti Cabinet submitted its resignation today at an extraordinary meeting.”

The news service of Al-Watan newspaper, owned by a member of the ruling family, said the foreign minister was set to face a question that could “provoke sectarianism.”
“The government was ready to face any questioning except that of Saleh Ashour,” it said, referring to a Shiite member of Parliament. “The prime minister refused to have it discussed in order to prevent provoking sectarianism or insulting friendly countries.”

Ashour wanted to discuss Bahrain. He has said he was insulted in a discussion show on state television for comments he made in support of protesters.
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other GCC states see Bahrain as a red line in popular uprisings that have swept the region since January. They view Shiites as a possible vehicle for the influence of non-Arab Shiite power Iran.

Kuwaiti Foreign Minister, Sheikh Mohammad al-Salem al-Sabah charged that three Iranian diplomats had proven links to the suspected spy ring, three members of which – two Iranians and a Kuwaiti – a Kuwaiti court condemned to death Tuesday.
“The government will take the required actions toward the [three] diplomats and they should be kicked out,” he told reporters. He gave no time frame for any expulsion.

The court, in closed-door sessions, heard charges that the spy ring had passed on confidential military information, taken pictures of military installations in Kuwait and spied for Iran.
“What we saw in the ruling has shocked us … that there is a conspiracy network linked to official sides in the Islamic Republic. As a result we have set up a Foreign Ministry crisis cell and recalled our ambassador” from Tehran, Sheikh Mohammad said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi Thursday dismissed as a “conspiracy” against Muslim countries the death sentence, the official IRNA news agency reported. Salehi made the remarks in a telephone conversation with Sheikh Mohammad.
“The old issue raised by a court in Kuwait and linked to the Islamic Republic of Iran is a plan pursued by those malevolent [forces] who do not desire good relations between the two countries,” Salehi was quoted as saying by IRNA.

“This [plan] is nothing but a conspiracy aimed at creating discord between Islamic countries in the region,” he added.
The Kuwaiti Cabinet’s resignation coincides with an opposition campaign for the resignation and replacement of the prime minister, a nephew of the ruling emir, Sheikh Sabah.

Several opposition MPs called on the emir Thursday to appoint a new prime minister, accusing Sheikh Nasser, who is in his early 70s, of failing to lead Kuwait despite huge financial surpluses on the back of high oil prices.
“We want a new government with a new prime minister charting a new course … If Sheikh Nasser is retained, all the problems will return and the crisis will be prolonged,” said Faisal al-Muslim, an Islamist.

Mussallam al-Barrak, spokesman for the opposition Popular Action Bloc, vowed to file a motion to question Sheikh Nasser himself if he is named to form the next government. “The right start is to have a new prime minister. Without this it will be useless to talk about reform,” he told reporters. “Sheikh Nasser has failed in every issue he has handled … If the prime minister insists on remaining in his post, the situation in Kuwait will continue to deteriorate,” he said.
Muslim said that governments led by Sheikh Nasser had over the past five years spent about $330 billion but without any major impact on development in Kuwait, which has 1.15 million nationals out of a 2.4-million population. – Agencies