Manama: Kuwaiti authorities are likely to request lifting the parliamentary immunity of MP Abdul Hameed Dashti following a complaint from the Saudi embassy in Kuwait.
The Saudi diplomatic mission has accused the lawmaker of abusing the Saudi kingdom in the Iranian media.
“We totally reject any form of abuse or insult to any sisterly country and we will take all the legal measures towards such an issue,” Shaikh Mohammad Al Abdullah Al Sabah, the state minister for cabinet affairs, said. “We do deplore that such matters are happening and we are dealing with them in accordance with the law,” the minister told London-based Al Hayat daily.
Shaikh Mohammad added that requesting the lifting of the parliamentary immunity was a normal procedure in such matters.
The Saudi embassy has presented a protest note to the Kuwaiti foreign ministry reporting the repeated abuses by Dashti.
According to the Saudi diplomats, the lawmaker repeatedly insulted the kingdom in statements to the Iranian media and should be referred to the public prosecution and put on trial.
According to Al Hayat, the lawmaker last week called during a television interview for giving Iran membership in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the alliance that comprises Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The alliance has not added or dropped any member since it was established in 1981.
Dashti also launched harsh criticism of Saudi Arabia on pro-Hezbollah television channel Al Manar following the start of the military operations in Yemen to restore the legitimate government and end the hegemony of the Houthi followers.
The Kuwait lawmaker predicted that the operations would destroy the entire Gulf.
Ten Gulf and Arab countries, including Kuwait, have been active in the military campaign in Yemen.
In another statement made inside the Kuwaiti parliament, the MP said that Kuwait should not be afraid of Iran or Iraq, its two neighbours to the north and to the east.
“The fear about Kuwait is from Saudi Arabia,” he reportedly said.
He also accused Saudi Arabia of supporting terrorism, but failed to substantiate his claims with concrete evidence, Al Hayat reported.
Dashti has often courted and waded into controversy through his statements and the pictures he posted with Syrian leaders in the parliament and government.
He visited Syria last year and presented his congratulations to President Bashar Al Assad on his re-election, Al Hayat said.
In January, Kuwait’s parliament voted 33 to 15 to lift his immunity after he posted in September tweets deemed offensive to Bahrain, prompting calls from fellow MPs to the Kuwaiti government to issue a formal statement and to initiate disciplinary proceedings against him.
In his tweets, Dashti referred to political decisions in Bahrain and added that “the invaders of Bahrain will leave,” without specifying the object of his tirade.
Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Shaikh Khalid Bin Ahmad Al Khalifa reacted by tweeting that “Bahrain’s respect was for the Kuwaiti parliament, and not for the nobody who attributes himself to the Kuwaiti people.”
The tweets by Dashti, who had made similar provocative statements in the past, landed him in legal trouble.
According to local media, the security agencies in Kuwait pushed for a recommendation to the government to have a case filed against him for his repeated outbursts against a “sisterly state”.
