Manama: The recall of the former Kuwaiti ambassador from Amman was the result of a curse by the spirit of Saddam Hussain, the former Iraqi leader, a Jordanian newspaper has claimed.
Shaikh Faisal Al Humood Al Malek Al Sabah was transferred from his post in Amman to Kuwait last week, in the aftermath of an attack on a private Kuwaiti satellite TV channel, allegedly by members of Al Malek branch of the Al Sabah ruling family.
Three brothers, Shaikh Faisal, Shaikh Abdullah and Shaikh Malek, were summoned to Kuwait City on charges of ransacking the offices of SCOPE TV after it broadcast a talk show they deemed offensive to their family.
"The spirit of Saddam Hussain has haunted the ambassador and was behind the decision of his transfer back to Kuwait," Al Majd paper claimed.
According to the newspaper report published this week, Jordanians have never forgotten the "negative attitudes" of the ambassador towards Saddam Hussain and his family, and saw his transfer as a "punishment from God".
Al Majd blasted the Kuwaiti ambassador for deciding that a street in Al Mazar, a small town 250 kilometres south of Amman, would not be named after Saddam Hussain as originally decided.
In January, Shaikh Faisal led a movement to put pressure on the Jordanian authorities to revoke the decision by Al Mazar municipal council. Around the same time, several politicians threatened to encourage the Kuwaiti government to stop relations with Jordan, if the street was not named as agreed.
According to Shaikh Faisal, Jordan's Prime Minister Sameer Al Rifae said: "The idea of naming the street after Saddam would not be recognised by the Jordanian Hashemite Kingdom".
The council, led by its mayor, Mohammad Al Sarayrah, a staunch Baathist who had studied in Iraq, shelved its decision in the wake of the political and diplomatic furore it had sparked both in Jordan and Kuwait.
However, a local tribe reacted by deciding to name all of the males born in 2010 "Saddam" and all the girls "Raghad", "Hala" or "Rana" after Saddam's daughters.
