Excuse me, but didn’t we save your asses?

Gertz’s Geo Strategy Direct

Kuwaiti official accused of facilitating arms transfers to Hizbullah

ABU DHABI — Kuwait’s finance minister has been accused of being a partner in a company that helped sell weapons to Hizbullah and violate the international embargo on Iran.

Opposition parliamentarians said Mustafa Al Shamali directed the state-operated pension fund to work with Iran and Hizbullah.

“It [the government] does not have any self-respect,” opposition parliamentarian Osama Al Munawer said.

Al Shamali, who resigned his post on May 24, was accused of squandering billions of dollars in Kuwaiti government funds. They said Al Shamali headed a pension fund that was a partner with a Kuwaiti company that violated the embargo on Iran.

The company, which was not named, was also accused of helping Hizbullah procure weapons. Parliamentarian Abdul Rahman Al Anjari did not elaborate in the debate regarding the finance minister on May 24.

Kuwait, ruled by a Sunni family, contains a population that is nearly 50 percent Shi’ite. Opposition parliamentarians said members of the royal family have sought to profit on Western sanctions on Iran.

Al Shamali denied the accusations. The finance minister, in the post since 2006, asserted that he had been targeted for a personal vendetta.

Another parliamentarian, Mussalam Al Barrak, said the government wasted $20 billion in an offset program for defense and energy projects. The offset program required foreign companies to invest 35 percent in Kuwait.