Kuwait

20 Aug 2020; MEMO: The oil-rich Gulf state of Kuwait will not have sufficient funds to cover public servants’ salaries after November, Finance Minister Barak Al-Sheetan warned parliament on Wednesday.

According to Bloomberg, Al-Sheetan confirmed that his country’s government is withdrawing from its General Reserve Fund at a rate of 1.7 billion dinars a month.

19 Aug 2020; MEMO: Some 37 Kuwaiti MPs yesterday called on their government to affirm its position against normalising relations with Israel.

In a statement, the MPs expressed their “unyielding and firm support for the Palestinian people,” recalling parliament’s “steady and consistent position against normalisation [with Israel] in all its forms “.

The statement continued: “The Kuwaiti people from all sects will not accept their government’s unwillingness to stand for the cause of Arabs and early Muslim.”

14 Aug 2020; MEMO: Kuwait, facing one of the worst economic crunches in the oil-rich state’s history, posted an actual deficit of $18.44 billion in the 2019-2020 fiscal year, the Finance Minister said yesterday.

Total revenues fell by over 16 per cent in the fiscal year which ended in March, dropping to 17.22 billion Kuwaiti dinars ($56.3 billion), the Finance Ministry announced on Twitter.

Kuwait has been scrambling to boost state coffers badly hit by the coronavirus crisis and low crude prices.

11 Aug 2020; MEMO: Kuwait’s government is working to address the labour market imbalance and its impact on the country’s demographics, a local paper has said, adding that a plan to tackle this will be presented on Saturday.

The Minister of Social Affairs and Labour and Minister of State for Economic Affairs, Maryam Al-Aqeel, will present the action plan during the human resources development meeting.

02 Aug 2020; MEMO: Kuwait has banned until further notice commercial flights to 31 countries it said that it regarded as high risk due to the spread of the coronavirus, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said on Saturday.

25 July 2020; MEMO: Four young men have died and others are in critical conditions in Kuwait, after being poisoned by locally manufactured adulterated wines.

According to local media, the victims arrived at Jahra Hospital in critical conditions, and four of them have died in the past few days. Six others are still in intensive care and one has lost his sight, reported Al-Anba newspaper.

Dubai, Jul 23 (AP/PTI) Kuwait's 91-year-old ruling emir left Thursday morning for the United States to seek further medical care after recently undergoing surgery, its state-run news agency reported.

Kuwait has yet to elaborate on what required Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah to seek a previously unannounced medical treatment beginning Saturday and a surgery Sunday. However, Sheikh Sabah's sudden surgery could inspire a renewed power struggle within Kuwait's ruling family.

22 July 2020; MEMO: The Kuwaiti Court of Appeal on Monday sentenced former lawmaker and lawyer, Nasser Al-Duwailah, to six months in prison and fined him 2,000 dinars ($6,500) after finding him guilty of offending the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait’s Al-Anbaa newspaper reported.

11 July 2020; MEMO: Details of human trafficking in Kuwait which saw the arrest of an MP from Bangladesh suggests that the scandal is not simply a case of one single rogue lawmaker. It now seems that Dhaka’s very own ambassador to the Gulf state is embroiled in criminal activity normally associated with the criminal underworld.

10 July 2020; MEMO: Kuwaiti prosecutors on Thursday issued an arrest warrant for the son of a former prime minister and his partner amid a corruption probe of the so-called “Malaysian Sovereign Fund” case, Anadolu Agency reports.