Baghdad seeks to end all pending issues with Kuwait before the end of this year in order to restore the bilateral relations to their level during the 1980’s, the Iraqi government said in a recent statement.

“Iraqi will end all pending issues with Kuwait before the start of next year; at which point there will be no obligations,” the statement reads, adding that the troubled relations between Kuwait and Iraq following the 1990 invasion have become “a thing of the past.”

“The bilateral relations will be back to normal if not better because Iraq expressed good intention towards Kuwait, which were highly welcomed by Kuwait in return,” the statement adds.

MP criticized

MP Dr Waleed Al-Tabtabaei received flak over “accusations not supported with proof ” he recently made in which he claimed that “an army reserve unit of Shiites is currently buying weapons from Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh and wait for zero hour.”

“While I am confident in Al-Tabtabaei’s good intentions, his statement is unfortunate because it would serve as an alarm to the claimed troublemakers if it was true, and is an unjustified instigation if it was not,” said member of the annulled 2012 parliament Dr Obaid Al-Wasmi. Meanwhile, former parliamentary elections candidate Safaa Al-Hashim criticized Al-Tabtabaei’s “unexpected accusations to Kuwait’s Shiites without any evidence to support his claims.”

“What is stopping you from reporting these allegedly serious information to police?” Al-Hashim questioned in a statement released yesterday. Meanwhile, a member of the annulled 2012 parliament Nabeel Al-Fadhl mockingly stated that Al- Tabtabaei failed to report the case “because he knows that he will end up being charged with false reports.”

Opposition bloc mulls over Safat Square protest

The opposition bloc is thinking about the possibility of staging a public demonstration at the Safat Square in downtown Kuwait City, where the government has banned assembling to avoid disturbing the surrounding commercial area. This was disclosed by sources, “The bloc plans to meet on Wednesday August 22nd reach an agreement on the date to hold their first demonstration.”

The bloc is studying the possibility of holding the protest on Monday August 27, in which the oppositionist Nahj group plans to stage their protest as well at the Iradah Square, in order to “ensure a strong first start to public protests,” sources added.

Cabinet substitutions

First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Interior Sheikh Ahmad Al-Hmoud Al- Sabah has been assigned the task of managing duties of Defense Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Khalid Al-Sabah in his absence, and vice versa.

This is according to an Amiri decree issued recently to set the ministerial substitutions for deputy prime ministers. The decree further assigns Minister of Information and State Minister of Cabinet Affairs Sheikh Mohammad Al-Sabah with duties of Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah in his absence.