Kuwait reshuffle sees oil, finance ministers go

Kuwait’s five-month-old cabinet has already fallen apart, as political tensions prompted a major reshuffle (GSN 953/8). On 23 December – just hours after the constitutional court rejected petitions to nullify July’s parliamentary polls – the entire government submitted its resignation to Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak, following media reports of an imminent reshuffle. On 6 January, Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah issued two emiri decrees, one accepting the resignation of seven of those ministers – including oil minister Mustafa Al-Shamali and finance minister Sheikh Salem Abdulaziz Al-Sabah – and the other making seven new appointments and reshuffling the remaining portfolios.