Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Congress has been told that Kuwait would not
face a revolt like that in other Arab League states.

The Congressional Research Service asserted that Kuwait would be able to
overcome the current escalation in unrest. CRS, which briefs the House and
Senate on a range of issues, said the Gulf Cooperation Council sheikdom
would provide financial benefits to neutralize violent protests.

“In consideration of Kuwait’s relative affluence and tradition of free expression through editorials and commentary, most experts have predicted that Kuwait will avoid a broad popular uprising in Kuwait along the lines of those that have toppled regimes elsewhere in the Middle East,” the report, titled “Kuwait: Security, Reform and U.S. Policy,” said. “However, the
growth of the unrest to the point where the prime minister or other senior officials resign cannot be ruled out.”

Authored by analyst Kenneth Katzman, the report said Kuwait’s ruling elite — particularly the Jaber and Salem families — has been strained by infighting since at least 2006. At the same time, the ruling Al Sabah family has been confronted by an increasingly critical parliament that seeks transparency in major arms and energy projects.

“Differences between the government and a coalition of reformist and
Islamist deputies in the elected National Assembly have added to the
tensions within the ruling family to produce the political deadlock since
Emir Jaber’s death in 2006,” the report, released on Nov. 3, said. “Those
opposing the government have tended to seek greater authority for the
assembly and a limitation of the powers of the government and by extension,
limitations of the political and economic power of the Al Sabah.”

The report said an agreement to alternate succession between the Jaber
and Salem branches of the Al Sabah family has broken down. As a result,
relations between the two branches have deteriorated as the Jabers dominate
the sheikdom leadership.

“Tensions between the two branches of the family have since continued to
simmer, and no permanent alternative mechanism has been agreed to replace
the previous power-sharing arrangement between the branches,” the report
said. “The whole family has nonetheless attempted to maintain solidarity
against growing political challenges from the National Assembly and other
elites. Many in the family fear that family disunity could open Kuwait to
popular unrest such as that seen throughout the Middle East in 2011.”

On Nov. 17, Emir Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah ordered the security forces to
quell illegal protests amid calls to oust Prime Minister Nasser Mohammed Al
Ahmed Al Sabah, a key member of the royal family. A day earlier, hundreds of
protesters stormed parliament amid a clash with security forces.

“This is chaos that endangers security,” the emir said.

CRS said Kuwait, a major non-NATO ally of the United States, was
expected to overcome what was termed the worst unrest in years. Katzman said
the royal family could dip into its huge reserves and distribute stipends
and expanded subsidies.

“Despite the elite infighting, and in contrast with Libya, Egypt,
Tunisia, Syria, and other Middle East countries in 2011, Kuwait is a
relatively wealthy society where most citizens apparently do
not want to take risks to achieve greater freedoms,” the report said.

The escalation in unrest comes as the U.S. military, with 23,000
soldiers in Kuwait, plans to deploy 4,000 combat troops in the sheikdom
during 2012. The troops, most of whom would be transferred from neighboring
Iraq, would serve as a regional rapid-response force.

“Perhaps because the unrest in Kuwait has been relatively minor, the
Obama administration has not made any high profile comments on it or on the
Kuwaiti government’s responses, and there has been no evident alteration of
the U.S.-Kuwait relationship as a result of any of the unrest,” the report
said.

  Al Sabah, Congressional Research Service, Gulf Cooperation Council, Jaber, National Assembly, Report: Kuwait to use financial position to ‘avoid a broad popular uprising’, Salem