Kuwait’s Interior Minister Faces Second Vote of Confidence

Kuwait’s Interior Minister Faces Second Vote of Confidence
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Kuwait’s Interior Minister Faces Second Vote of Confidence

Kuwait’s Interior Minister Faces Second Vote of Confidence

Kuwaiti Speaker Marzouq Ali al-Ghanim announced that 10 lawmakers submitted a request for a vote of confidence against Interior Minister Anas Saleh. The session also included another grilling motion against Minister of Education and Higher Education Saud al-Harbi.

This is the second grilling request in less than two weeks against Saleh, after the National Assembly discussed in its regular session another one submitted by MP Mohammed Hayef.

The Speaker clarified that the voting session on the two ministers' confidence motion will be held in a special session on September 10.

The National Assembly approved the request of the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Sabah to postpone his grilling by MPs Abdulkarim al-Kanderi and al-Humaidi al-Subaie.

The parliament approved 15 September as the date for the grilling.

The assembly began to discuss the questioning submitted by MP Muhammad Hayef against Saleh, who is also the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs.

MP Khalid al-Otaibi called upon the Interior Minister to resign, noting that over a thousand files are missing from the State Security, which may be related to the Malaysian Fund case.

Lawmaker Ali al-Deqbasi opposed the questioning, asserting that the Minister is paying the price for the bold measures he took.

In August, the parliament rejected a no-confidence vote against Saleh, after the motion was opposed by 35 MPs and supported by 13, of the total 48 lawmakers present during the session.

The vote came regarding the 2018 “leaked recordings” issue, which created a massive public uproar in the country after discovering that personal accounts of prominent public figures, among them lawmakers and journalists, were being monitored.

In addition, three lawmakers began a grilling against the Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education.

Two grilling motions, one from MP al-Humaidi al-Subai and the other from MPs Khalil Abul and Ouda al-Ruwaiee were combined into one and the minister was answering them.

Subai accused Harbi of failing to abide by regulations of Council of Ministers and Civil Services Commission (CSC) regarding the priority of employment for Kuwaiti citizens. He also accused the Minister of failing to adopt proper decisions during the coronavirus pandemic crisis.

Abul and Ruwaiee claimed that Harbi stalled the implementation of online education, mismanagement, and undermining the private education system.

They also accused the minister of adopting decisions without considering quality criteria, delay in announcing scholarships, as well as failing to issue university degrees for stateless students despite completing their studies.



Arab Foreign Ministers Call for Immediate Ceasefire in Gaza

Italian Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani attends the opening session of the Rome Med 2024, Mediterranean Dialogues conference in Rome, Italy, 25 November 2024. (EPA)
Italian Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani attends the opening session of the Rome Med 2024, Mediterranean Dialogues conference in Rome, Italy, 25 November 2024. (EPA)
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Arab Foreign Ministers Call for Immediate Ceasefire in Gaza

Italian Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani attends the opening session of the Rome Med 2024, Mediterranean Dialogues conference in Rome, Italy, 25 November 2024. (EPA)
Italian Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani attends the opening session of the Rome Med 2024, Mediterranean Dialogues conference in Rome, Italy, 25 November 2024. (EPA)

Several Arab foreign ministers, gathering in Rome on the sidelines of the Group of Seven meeting, are calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon and the provision of humanitarian aid to Palestinians.

The ministers of Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates, and the secretary general of the League of Arab States, all participated in a Rome conference before joining G7 foreign minsters later in the day in nearby Fiuggi.

“Gaza is now a graveyard for children, a graveyard for human values, a graveyard for international law,” said Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi.

The Mideast conflict was the top agenda item Monday for the G7, amid reported progress on a possible ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. Israel’s ambassador to the US said a deal could be reached within days.

“We all hope and pray that this ceasefire will be realized because the absence of it will mean more destruction, and more and more animosity, and more dehumanization, and more hatred, and more bitterness which will doom the future of the region to more conflict and more killing and more destruction,” Safadi said.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty reaffirmed that Cairo would host a ministerial-level conference next Monday on mobilizing international aid for Gaza.

In remarks to the “Mediterranean Dialogues” conference, he called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon, the release of hostages, provision of humanitarian aid for Palestinians and the initiation of “a serious and genuine political process” to create a Palestinian state.