Cairo:The appointment of Ghadeer Mohammad Mahmoud in Kuwait’s new government has drawn sharp criticism from several lawmakers, who accused the new minister of posting years ago a tweet critical of the dispatch of Gulf security forces to end the 2011 unrest in Bahrain.
On Tuesday, Ghadeer was named minister of social affairs, being one of three women ministers appointed for the first time in a Kuwaiti government.
“If her tweet proved authentic, will then this be a good message from the new government to the Gulf countries and neighbouring countries?” said MP Adel Al Damkhi.
“Does this go in line with the Kuwaiti approach to deepening rapprochement and cementing ranks?” the lawmaker was quoted by the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Rai as saying.
In the same vein, MP Mohammad Haif criticised the appointment of Ghadeer in the new government led by Shaikh Sabah Al Khalid Al Sabah and called on him to replace her.
“We wished for a successful start. But if you don’t learn, it is a disaster. And if you learn [about the purported tweet], the disaster is greater,” the legislator said, addressing the new prime minister.
“The head of the government leaves no option in dealing with the minister, who asked the Peninsula Shield [the Gulf security forces] to get out [of Bahrain], either to leave the government or the prime minister himself to quit,” Haif added.
MP Osama Al Chahin, meanwhile, called Ghadeer’s appointment a “provocation” and a “cause of collision rather than cooperation” between the parliament and the government. So far, there has been no comment from Ghadeer or the prime minister.
Last month, the Kuwaiti government resigned amid a row between the parliament and the government.
