Kuwait National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem

KUWAIT: National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem said yesterday that the citizenships that were revoked almost three years ago will be reinstated "very shortly". Responding to criticism by Islamist opposition MP Mohammad Hayef over the issue, Ghanem thanked HH the Amir and other lawmakers who worked on this goal. He however gave no dates. Hayef complained in statements on Sunday that the issue had unnecessarily taken very long, especially after HH the Amir promised to order to resolve the issue after meeting with a number of lawmakers several weeks ago. But Ghanem blasted Hayef for his "unnecessary" criticism, saying he seems to be "creating trouble".

The Assembly meanwhile holds its regular sessions today and tomorrow, and is scheduled to debate two grillings against the prime minister by opposition MPs. MP Shuaib Al-Muwaizri said yesterday that he has decided to join MPs Waleed Al-Tabtabaei and Mohammad Al-Mutair in their grilling, replacing Marzouq Al-Khalifa, who had signed on the grilling before the constitutional court stripped him of his membership and declared Farraj Al-Arbeed the new lawmaker. As a result, Muwaizri will take part in the two grillings because he had already signed the other grilling along with MP Riyadh Al-Adasani. Adasani said that the move will not weaken his grilling.

Head of the Assembly's budgets committee MP Adnan Abdulsamad yesterday said that Kuwait's direct losses from the stoppage of oil production in the neutral zone with Saudi Arabia have amounted to KD 1.7 billion. Abdulsamad said there are other indirect losses like the expected damage in equipment as a result of ceasing operations.

Crude production at the offshore Khafji oilfield was halted by Saudi Arabia in Oct 2014 due to environmental reasons, while output at the onshore Wafra oilfield was halted several months later. The two fields were pumping around 500,000 barrels per day when operations were shut down. The production was being shared equally between the two countries. Oil Minister Essam Al-Marzouq had said that operations in the neutral zone will resume within a few weeks. The company handling the area has been preparing for the resumption of production.

The Assembly's environment committee yesterday discussed with the environment authority the issue of the dead fish. The committee said that the Assembly will today ask it to investigate the mass deaths.

By B Izzak