Riyadh wants Kuwaiti MP prosecuted over 'insults'

The Saudi embassy in Kuwait filed a request to the country’s Foreign Ministry calling for prosecuting a Shia Kuwaiti lawmaker for his “repeated insults to Saudi Arabia in the media.”

The Saudi embassy, in an official request, called for the prosecution of MP Abdul-Hamid Dashti, a diplomatic source who declined to be named told Anadolu Agency.

Last week, Dashti strongly criticised Saudi Arabia’s handling of the Yemeni situation.

The Saudi-led operation “will destroy all Gulf countries,” Dashti told Lebanon’s Hezbollah-owned Al-Manar TV.

During a Saturday interview on another privately-owned Lebanese channel, Dashti said that “the Gulf Cooperation Council has become a burden on us [Kuwait] and dragged us into wars and security agreements that violate our constitution.”

“The people of the Gulf are divided with regards to the war on Yemen,” he said, adding that “when Arab countries give up on Syria, the [Shia] Houthis and the Palestinians, they will turn to Iran.”

At a previous parliamentary session, Dashti said: “fear over [the security of] Kuwait doesn’t come from Iran or Iraq, but from Saudi Arabia, which is a terrorism supporter.”

In October, Kuwaiti prosecution authorities accused Dashti of “placing Kuwait at risk of severing relations with brotherly nations,” after he made a statement on Twitter saying that “the people of Bahrain will be victorious and will expel the invaders,” without specifying who he meant by the “invaders.”