Manama: An Islamist parliamentary bloc has threatened to grill either the Prime Minister or the Defence minister if Kuwait signs a multi-billion-dollar deal to purchase French-made Rafale warplanes.
The Islamist Reform and Development Bloc said that it was in possession of "important documents issued by the army and that recommended against the purchase of the planes," according to a report published by Kuwait Times on Monday.
"Inking the deal would mean grilling the official who is responsible for the signing," MP Faisal Al Mislem said at a press conference.
The bloc, which has four of the parliament's 50 seats, attributed its opposition to the high-profile deal to concerns about "squandering public funds in a massive way."
"Based on the army documents, the Rafale is technically inferior to some other planes because it belongs to the fourth generation while manufacturers are already into the fifth generation," MP Jamaan Al Harbash said.
"The plane is very expensive and so are its spare parts. The plane also has serious defects and Dassault Aviation has been unable to sell the fighter to anyone."
Only the French armed forces have reportedly ordered 180 of the aircraft made by France's Dassault group and promoted as ultra-modern semi-stealth omnirole fighters.
France hoped that a deal with Brazil that would result in the first sale of the jet outside France would boost the Rafale's chances in tenders with Kuwait and other countries.
Al Harbash insisted that the bloc had "no animosity against France, but objected the deal because it would mean squandering public funds in a massive way."
Mislem, Harbash and Waleed Al Tabtabaei, who spoke at the conference, said that they had sent several questions to the minister of defense, but had not received answers.
Al Harbash said that the Audit Bureau, Kuwait's independent financial regulatory body, was last November asked to investigate the Rafale issue and two planned arms deals with the United States to determine whether they were in line with Kuwaiti laws. Together the three deals are reputedly worth at least $8 billion.
However, the bureau has written back to the parliament saying that it could not conduct the probe because the defense ministry declined to provide it with the necessary documents, the newspaper said.
Mislem said that there were "suspicions of profiteering and corruption in the deal."
The Popular Action Bloc spokesman MP Musallam Al Barrak said that they would support any grilling over the Rafale fighters.
The French, meanwhile, defended the deal.
Admiral Edouard Guillaud, the chief of staff of the French armed forces who flew to Kuwait on Saturday for talks with Kuwaiti officials on activating the military agreement, said that the Rafale was one of the best warplanes in the world and insisted that negotiations over the deal were proceeding "smoothly and in complete transparency."
"It is important to bolster military cooperation between Kuwait and France. Kuwait is among the top most important countries to France and a friendly country which we have several political and military agreements," Guillaud was quoted as saying by the official Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)
"France would gladly offer to exchange the old Mirage fighters in the Kuwaiti air fleet with the Rafale aircraft. The Kuwaiti government asked to study the offer and has sent experts to France for a close assessment of the jets."
The French chief of staff said that Paris would make a proposal to sell the fighter to the United Arab Emirates.
Kuwait's parliament is seen as the most active legislature in the region and its committee for protecting public funds has often delayed or amended major arms procurement programmes.
