Kuwait needs to find an elusive consensus to overcome paralysis

There was no great surprise when prime minister Sheikh Sabah Khalid Al-Hamad Al-Sabah’s government resigned in mid-January: this had been widely expected amid rising tensions between the executive and the National Assembly (parliament) in the period since the 5 December general election. In a three-stage process, deputy prime minister Sheikh Hamad Jaber Al-Ali Al-Sabah offered the resignation of all cabinet ministers at a meeting with Sheikh Sabah at Seif Palace on 12 January.