Kuwait government resigns, reports say

Kuwait’s government today submitted its resignation to the ruling emir, leading local newspapers Al Qabas and Al Rai reported, according to Reuters.

The government has been locked in a standoff with opposition lawmakers who have insisted on questioning Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah in the elected parliament.

Yesterday Kuwait’s cabinet approved draft decrees for a planned amnesty for political dissidents, the government said, in an effort to end the standoff between opposition lawmakers that has blocked legislative work for months.

The amnesty has been a key condition of the opposition for ending its standoff with the administration that has paralysed legislation and hindered efforts to boost the state finances and enact measures including a debt law that will make it possible to tap global markets.

“The cabinet approved the necessary draft decrees in preparation for submission to His Highness the Emir,” the government said.

Emir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah tasked the parliament speaker, the prime minister and the head of the supreme judicial council with recommending the conditions and terms of the amnesty ahead of it being issued by decree.

The three had presented a “preliminary report” last week, spelling out the standards of the planned amnesty.

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