Kuwait new emir has right to take oath - speaker
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-01-23 15:33

Kuwait's parliamentary speaker said on Sunday that the Gulf state's new emir had a right to take the oath of office, potentially widening a rift in the ruling family over whether he is too ill to rule.

A source close to the royal family said Sheikh Saad al-Abdulla al-Sabah had agreed to take the oath on Tuesday.

Sheikh Saad, 76, was proclaimed emir last Sunday after the death of his cousin, Emir Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah at the age of 78.

But the cabinet said on Saturday it was invoking a law that allows it to ask a medical team to examine Sheikh Saad and report to parliament on his ability to rule. Any step to remove him would require a two-thirds vote in parliament.

The emir had however asked parliament to allow him to take the oath of office. Under the constitution, he has to take the two-line oath in front of a special parliament session before he can formally assume his responsibilities as ruler.

"If His Highness the emir wishes to take the oath, we can not reject such a request," house speaker Jassem al-Kharafi told reporters at parliament.

"Sheikh Saad and Speaker Kharafi met and Tuesday was set as the date for the emir's swearing-in during a parliament session," a source close to the ruling family said. There was no official confirmation.

Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, the late emir's brother, has been de facto ruler for the past few years and analysts say he is the most likely contender for the post of emir if Sheikh Saad were forced to step down.

But appointing Sheikh Sabah would break with a long-held tradition of power-sharing by Kuwait's two branches of the royal family -- the Jabers and the Salems.

Sheikh Sabah and the late emir belong to the Jaber branch.

Sheikh Saad, from the other branch, had colon surgery in 1997. He was hospitalised last year with hyperglycaemia and has had treatment abroad often since then, most recently in August.

ELDERS BACK SHEIKH SABAH

Earlier on Sunday, the cabinet indicated it was pressing on with its insistence on a medical examination.

"It reviewed the requirements of implementing the law to finish all constitutional and legal considerations that guarantee the country's higher national interests".

Several elders of the ruling family, mostly those from Jaber branch of the dynasty, met Sheikh Sabah on Friday and voiced confidence in his ability to continue to run Kuwait, an OPEC producer with nearly a tenth of the world's oil reserves.

The show of support was interpreted by the local media as paving the way for the veteran politician, who is in his mid- 70s, to assume the state's top post.

"If we can reach a solution through the ruling family's wisemen, that is what everyone hopes for," Kharafi said. "But if it is our fate that we must assume our responsibility in parliament then we shall bear our responsibility in parliament".

Columnist Nabil al-Fadl said in an editorial in al-Watan daily that Sheikh Saad's side of the family, the Salems, should not keep pushing for him to assume power as emir "after his health and mind had failed according to God's will".

It was unclear whether Sheikh Saad could still be removed from office on medical grounds even after he took the oath of office, nor whether Sheikh Sabah's backers would try to intervene before Tuesday to prevent the ceremony.

The tussle over the succession has caused some confusion in the U.S.-allied Gulf Arab state, but no panic in a country which has a tradition of resolving internal differences quietly.

The stock market fell on Saturday but recouped some of its losses on Sunday.

Shortly after Kharafi spoke, workers put up pictures of Sheikh Saad with a Kuwaiti flag behind parliament's outer wall.