KUWAIT, March 16: Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah today accepted the resignation of the country's government but asked the Prime Minister to form a new cabinet.A series of decrees from the Emir read on Kuwait Television said the Emir reappointed Crown Prince Sheikh Saad Al-Abdulla Al-Sabah as Prime Minister and asked him to form a new government.
The 15-man cabinet led by Sheikh Saad resigned yesterday to avoid a showdown in parliament tomorrow in a no-confidence vote against Information Minister Sheikh Saud Nasser Al-Sabah, a member of the country's ruling Al-Sabah family.
Backers of the no-confidence say they secured more than the 24 votes needed to dismiss the minister in a crisis between the government and Islamists over the displaying of banned books which Islamists see as un-Islamic.
Sheikh Saad, born in 1929, has been Prime Minister of successive Kuwaiti governments since he was first appointed Crown Prince in 1978.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
