SUBSCRIPTION WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2017 JAMADA ALAWWAL 25, 1438 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Amir sails in Le Pen cancels AUB net Kuwait SC Omani waters meeting with profit surges beat Kazma onboard Lebanon mufti by 6.2% to to clinch royal yacht2 over headscarf7 $570.6m21 Amir19 Cup MPs threaten to grill PM Min 07º Max 22º over Harbi ‘resignation’ High Tide 10:05 & 19:53 Low Tide Ban on publishing suspects’ images 03:25 & 14:03 40 PAGES NO: 17149 150 FILS By B Izzak Kuwait Times fetes art competition winners KUWAIT: A number of opposition MPs yesterday warned they will grill HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al- Mubarak Al-Sabah if the health minister is allowed to resign following a controversy over the minister’s bid to sack top officials. MP Yousef Al-Fadhalah said on his Twitter account that he will file to grill the prime minister on March 5 if the government allows Health Minister Jamal Al-Harbi to quit, while leaving “suspected corrupt senior bureaucrats” in their positions. The lawmaker said that he had learned that Harbi offered his resignation on Monday during the Cabinet meeting after his demand to sack the undersecretary and a number of senior officials was not accepted by the Cabinet. The controversy over the health minister has been growing even before the November election, after reports that the cost of sending Kuwaitis for treatment abroad skyrocketed to new highs. Some MPs put it at as high as KD 750 million last year. Opposition MPs have alleged that a majority of those sent for treatment abroad were in fact not patients but sent on what they described as “medical tourism or politi- cal medication”, under which thousands of fake patients were sent abroad to appease certain MPs. Fingers were pointed at the former health minister, who was accused of sending around 10,000 patients as a favor for MPs to win their votes against his own grilling last year. According to Fadhalah and other lawmakers, Harbi, a former ministry assistant undersecretary, wanted to sack the ministry undersecretary and several top officials over allegations of corruption and because he could not work with them. MP Jamaan Al-Harbash held the prime minis- ter responsible for not supporting the minister against the health ministry’s senior officials. Harbash slammed the reported resignation of the minister, adding that sac- rificing the minister to keep unsuccessful officials in the KUWAIT: Kuwait Times Editor-in-Chief Abd Al-Rahman Al-Alyan, Australian Ambassador to Kuwait Warren Hauck, Kuwait Times Deputy General Manager Adnan ministry is another proof for the failure of the govern- Saad, judges and winners are seen during the awards ceremony of Kuwait Times’ student art competition “Colours of Australia” at Crowne Plaza Hotel yesterday. ment and its inability to run the country. Complete coverage of the event and names of winners will be published in Kuwait Times from Monday, Feb 27, 2017. — Photo by Joseph Shagra Continued on Page 13 Expatriates recall staying McMaster named as PAGE UAE deals with drones PAGE through invasion horrors top Trump advisor after airport closures By Ben Garcia Qaffaf, a Jordanian newspaper photogra- pher, recalls the days of the invasion, and KUWAIT: The 1990-91 Iraqi invasion of how he was forced to stay back to keep Kuwait was a traumatic event for resi- his family together. The electricity in his Expats blamed for state’s woes dents of Kuwait, both citizens and flat was cut, while food was reduced to expats. While large numbers of expats soup and rice. He had to sell some of his KUWAIT: Kuwait’s first new government runs out. It carried Kuwait through the left the country to return to their home- family gold jewelry to survive. hospital in more than three decades will expenses of the seven-month Iraqi occu- lands, often by treacherous land journeys Bong Pagutayao, a Filipino cashier at Khamenei calls soon open its doors - but only to Kuwaiti pation and the 1991 US-led Gulf War that before they could board a ship or plane a grocery store, also remained back citizens. It’s the latest in a series of steps liberated it. to their destinations, many others with his roommates, working in a meat Israel a ‘fake’ targeting foreigners, including laborers Expatriates with residency and work remained, either voluntarily or because factory in exchange for food to survive. who build high-rise towers, sweep the visas in Kuwait get subsidized healthcare. they couldn’t find a way to leave. The safety of residents in Kuwait wors- roads and clean toilets in the state - a A foreign laborer - usually from another Kuwait Times spoke to two expats ened day-by-day, especially after the nation, ‘tumor’ group that far outnumbers the native pop- Arab country or an Asian migrant - pays who stayed through the nearly seven- US-led coalition entered the fray. They ulation. The KD 304 million ($997 million) KD 1 ($3.2) to see a doctor at a public hos- month occupation of Kuwait to learn tried to leave once via Iraq, but were TEHRAN: Iran’s supreme leader yesterday used the Jaber Hospital, about a 20-minute drive pital. His employer would typically pay for more about their experiences during this turned back due to heavy bombard- podium of a pro-Palestinian gathering in Tehran to from downtown Kuwait City, is expected him an annual health insurance to the darkest period in Kuwait’s history. Ghazi ment. (Full story on Page 3) lash out at Israel, calling the Jewish state a “fake” to open in the coming months. It will be government of KD 50, or about $160. nation in a “dirty chapter” of history. The remarks by the first government hospital built in Western expats who live and work in Ayatollah Ali Khamenei were some of his most vitriolic Kuwait since 1984, taking some pressure Kuwait tend to go to private hospitals as against Israel, Iran’s archenemy. Every four years since off an overburdened public health system. part of lucrative health care packages pro- the early 1990s, Tehran US ally Kuwait, like other oil-rich Gulf vided by their employers. has hosted a similar states, has for decades offered a free cra- Many see the new, citizens-only hospi- conference in support dle-to-grave healthcare for its citizens, tal as a step too far. “They were granted of the Palestinian cause, along with plenty of generous perks such their workers’ visa. They deserve to be assembling foreign as subsidized utility prices and housing treated with dignity,” Dr Yousef Al- guests and those who grants. But services have been fraying in Muhanna, a 34-year old general surgeon, oppose Israel. recent years - despite the cushion of sever- said of the migrant workers. The discrimi- Speaking to the al hundred billion dollars that Kuwait has nation goes against the Hippocratic Oath, gathering, Khamenei been building since the 1970s, mostly in a he says. “We are not supposed to look at said Israel was created fund for future generations. That money, their passports - we are supposed to deal by bringing Jews from which stays out of the state budget, is with their medical conditions.” other parts of the world meant to provide for Kuwaitis when the oil Continued on Page 13 to the Mideast region to settle in the land of the Ali Khamenei Palestinians to replace its “true entity”. The creation of Israel is “one of the dirty chapters of history that will be closed, with the RIYADH: Saudi King Salman meets US Senator John McCain in the Saudi capital grace of God,” he added. Khamenei’s speech lasted yesterday. —AFP 33 minutes. The supreme leader, who has final say on all state matters in Iran, also urged all Muslims to support the Trump critic McCain Palestinians and “resistance” movements - a refer- ence to anti-Israeli groups such as Palestinian Hamas meets King Salman and Lebanon’s Hezbollah. Iran has always been their staunch ally. The “resistance movements should RIYADH: Influential American Senator Syria’s government and the opposition have all necessary instruments,” Khamenei added John McCain, a critic of President Donald gather in Geneva today for a new round and praised those who are part of it in allegedly suc- Trump, held talks with Saudi Arabia’s King of United Nations-brokered talks aimed ceeding in “preventing the domination of the Zionist Salman yesterday, official media said. at ending six years of fighting. Saudi regime in the entire region.” McCain, who chairs the Senate Armed Arabia, Turkey and Qatar have provided But he did not appear to endorse an all-our war Services Committee, arrived in Riyadh military and financial aid to rebels fight- on Israel, saying instead that it’s a “cancerous tumor” after talks on Syria with Turkish President ing Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad. All that requires a “step by step” treatment. In 2015, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Saudi Press are also members of a US-led coalition Khamenei predicted that Israel would not exist after Agency gave no details of McCain’s meet- battling the Islamic State militants there. 25 years. Some 80 delegations, mainly from Islamic ing at Salman’s office, except to say that After his talks in Syria, the Republican countries as well as pro-Palestinian activists, attend- the friendly ties between their two coun- senator from Arizona said on his website ed the two-day meeting. Iranian President Hassan tries were discussed. that Erdogan “described a proposal to Rouhani and several government officials also attended the conference. — AP KUWAIT: This Jan 25, 2017 photo shows the new KD 304 million ($997 million) McCain’s visit comes two days before Continued on Page 13 Jaber Hospital.