By Omar Hasan

Agence France Presse 
 

KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait’s prime minister comfortably survived a Parliament vote of confidence Thursday but the opposition called on him to step down and filed a new motion to grill him, plunging the OPEC member into yet another crisis.

Minutes after defeating the third bid against him, Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad al-Ahmad Al-Sabah extended an offer of cooperation to the opposition, which responded by calling on him to resign.
Only 18 MPs voted for the motion, seven votes short of the required number to unseat Sheikh Nasser, a senior member of the Al-Sabah ruling family, Speaker Jassem al-Khorafi said after a secret session.
Twenty-five MPs voted in support of the prime minister and six lawmakers abstained in the 50-member House. One seat is held by a minister who is not allowed to take part in such votes.

The “non-cooperation” motion was filed by the Islamist, nationalist and liberal opposition in a bid to oust Sheikh Nasser over allegations he boosted ties with Shiite Iran rather than Sunni-ruled Gulf Arab states.
During the grilling on June 14, the opposition accused the prime minister of undermining national security by developing ties with Tehran which they charged of posing a real danger against Kuwait and its Gulf Arab neighbors.
Sheikh Nasser has denied the allegations, but opposition MPs demanded his resignation.

“Twenty-four MPs did not grant the prime minister their trust … If you know democracy and the Constitution well, you should not remain in your post for one day,” outspoken opposition MP Mussallam al-Barrak said.
Liberal MP Abdulrahman al-Anjari said “in my opinion the prime minister has failed … because half of Parliament and the Kuwaiti people have not granted him their confidence.”
Less than an hour after the vote, three opposition MPs, Khaled al-Tahus, Faisal al-Muslim and Barrak, filed a new motion to quiz Sheikh Nasser, this time over allegations of corruption and financial irregularities.

Pro-government MPs vowed they will continue to defend the prime minister against “illegal grillings.” “We will confront this state of chaos and oppression … Kuwaiti democracy should not be harmed by such unconstitutional and personally-motivated grillings,” MP Salwa al-Jassar told reporters.
It was the third time the Kuwaiti leader has survived an opposition bid to oust him, the last being in January on allegations that he suppressed public freedoms.

Following the confidence vote, the prime minister said he would continue to extend his hands for cooperation with his opponents “in the interest of Kuwait and its people.”
Kuwait, which sits on 10 percent of proven oil reserves and has assets close to $300 billion, has been rocked with almost non-stop political conflicts since Sheikh Nasser, a nephew of the ruler, was appointed in February 2006.
During this period, Parliament was dissolved three times and fresh elections were held while Sheikh Nasser resigned six times, stalling development projects in the process.

Analysts pin part of the blame for the ongoing political turmoil in Kuwait on a power struggle within the Al-Sabah family that has ruled the oil-rich state for more than 250 years without any serious challenge.
Senior member of the ruling family and former deputy prime minister Sheikh Ahmad Fahad al-Sabah resigned from the Cabinet last week after a dispute with the prime minister.

Besides the emir, crown prince and prime minister, ruling family members also control the so-called sovereign ministries of Defense, Interior and Foreign Affairs.
The Kuwaiti opposition has vowed that it will keep up its campaign to oust the prime minister, accusing him of “destroying the country.”