Kuwait forms new government

Ahmad Abdullah leads new cabinet after it was dissolved earlier

Kuwait formed a new cabinet headed by Ahmad Abdullah Al Sabah, the Kuwaiti state news agency said yesterday.

Imad Al Atiqi, Anwar Ali Al Mudhaf and Abdullah Ali Al Yahya retained their posts as oil, finance and foreign ministers, respectively.

Earlier, the Kuwait Emir had dissolved parliament and assumed some government duties barely six weeks after elections in the state that has seen repeated political crises, state media reported.

The Kuwait News Agency (Kuna) earlier said, “An Emiri order was issued to dissolve the national assembly and suspend some articles of the constitution for a period not exceeding four years.”

It said the Emir, Shaikh Meshaal Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah, and the council of ministers were “assuming the powers granted to the national assembly”. The state’s ruler attributed his move to the “interference” of some MPs in the emir’s powers and others imposing “conditions” on helping to form a government.

“We have faced difficulties and obstacles that cannot be tolerated,” he said in a speech broadcast on state television.

He accused some lawmakers of “going as far as to interfere in the heart of the prince’s powers and his choice of his crown prince, forgetting that this is an explicit constitutional right of the prince.”

Kuwait’s constitution requires that at least one deputy hold a ministerial portfolio until the government formation is completed. But the prime minister-designate had been unable to convince any lawmaker to take part.

Imad Al Atiqi, Anwar Ali Al Mudhaf and Abdullah Ali Al Yahya retained their posts as oil, finance and foreign ministers, respectively.