Kuwait forms cabinet with new oil and defence ministers, reappoints finance minister

Kuwait formed a new government on Sunday naming Saad Al-Barrak as oil minister to replace Bader Al-Mulla and reappointing Finance Minister Manaf Abdulaziz Al-Hajri.

Sheikh Ahmad Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, who was reappointed as prime minister last week, formed the new cabinet announced in a decree carried by the state news agency KUNA.

The Gulf Arab state also named a new defence minister, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah, who returned to the government after a 12-year absence.

The new Kuwaiti government, which includes 15 ministers, includes the return of nine ministers out of 14 from the previous government, and the addition of six new ministers.

The outgoing government had resigned following parliamentary elections held earlier this month in the Gulf OPEC oil producer.

The gulf country has undergone seven general elections in just over a decade, following repeated political crises that have undermined parliament and stalled reforms.

Since Kuwait adopted a parliamentary system in 1962, the legislature has been dissolved around a dozen times.

Kuwait holds some of the world's largest oil reserves and has strong fiscal and external balance sheets, but political bickering and institutional gridlock have hampered investment and reforms aimed at reducing its heavy reliance on oil revenues.

(Reuters)