Kuwait taps ex-oil minister to form latest government

AFP | Kuwait City        

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Kuwait’s emir yesterday tasked a former oil minister with forming a new government, state media reported, after the latest parliamentary polls in the Gulf state riven by political instability.

“Today an Emiri order was issued appointing Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah al-Ahmad al-Sabah as prime minister and assigning him to nominate members of the new cabinet,” the Kuwait News Agency said.

The move comes just a few months into the reign of Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad al-Sabah and less than two weeks after Kuwait’s third parliamentary vote in as many years saw the opposition maintain its majority.

The government resigned a day after those polls held on April 4. The outgoing prime minister, Sheikh Mohammad Sabah al-Salem al-Sabah, refused to take up the position again amid ongoing tensions between the government and the 50-member National Assembly.

Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah, the 71-year-old new prime minister, served as oil and information minister from 2009 to 2011 and has recently been head of the crown prince’s court with a ministerial rank.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in finance, banking and investment from the University of Illinois. Kuwait boasts approximately seven percent of the world’s oil reserves and the Gulf’s most powerful elected assembly.