Kuwaiti Ruler Approves Resignation of Jaber’s Cabinet

Kuwaiti ruler Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah has accepted the resignation of the ninth cabinet led by Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber al-Mubarak al-Sabah.

The official Kuwaiti news agency, KUNA, said the ruler issued a decree on Sunday, accepting the resignation of the government of Premier Sheikh Jaber. 

The Kuwaiti cabinet submitted its resignation to the country’s ruler on June 25. 

The ruler is scheduled to start consultations about the formation of a new cabinet on July 2. 

Sheikh Jaber, who was asked by the ruler to lead a caretaker government, is highly expected to be the first choice to form a new cabinet. 

The outgoing cabinet was the ninth government that was formed following the parliamentary elections of February 2, in which the opposition won 34 of the 50 seats. 

However, Kuwait’s constitutional court scrapped the parliamentary elections on June 20, ruling that a move to dissolve the previous government, ordered by the Kuwaiti ruler, was unconstitutional and “illegal.” 

Kuwaiti opposition lawmakers, who have been calling for a constitutional monarchy and a full parliamentary system, rejected the verdict as a “coup against the constitution.” 

On June 26, thousands of Kuwaitis held a demonstration against the constitutional court ruling in the capital, Kuwait City. 

Sheikh Sabah al-Sabah suspended the parliament for one month on June 18, following a row between opposition lawmakers and the cabinet, where the key posts are held by the ruling al-Sabah family.