Special to WorldTribune.com

ABU DHABI — Kuwait has been concerned over the prospect of sectarian
clashes fueled by the proliferation of weapons throughout the Gulf
Cooperation Council sheikdom.

Parliamentarians have been warning the royal family that the rival Sunni
and Shi’ite communities have been acquiring weapons that could be used
in sectarian fighting. They cited Lebanon, where Sunnis and Shi’ites formed
militias to settle long-held scores.

“I urge the government to apply the law and to start a campaign to take all firearms from the people,” Walid Al Tabtabei, an opposition Islamist parliamentarian, said. “The government should assume this responsibility.”

Kuwait, a major non-NATO ally of the United States, has been struggling with rising tension between Sunnis and Shi’ites. In 2012, the GCC state reported a significant increase in shootings by people who held unlicensed firearms.

Several parliamentarians have called on the government to crack down on unlicensed weapons, many of which were smuggled from neighboring Iraq. They said the last such effort took place in 2003 amid several Al Qaida attacks on the U.S. military presence in Kuwait.

Officials confirmed the spread of firearms. They said the biggest
problem was in northern and southern Kuwait, populated by large tribes,
members of which serve in the military and security forces.

“The situation is very dangerous,” a senior official, who did not want
to be identified, said.

But the parliamentarians said the rising influence of Iran in Kuwait
required a security crackdown. They said the Sunni-led government, however,
must ensure equal treatment of Sunni and Shi’ite communities.

“The Interior Ministry must take more serious efforts to collect
weapons, without any exception,” parliamentarian Adel Al Damki, said.

  Adel Al Damki, long-held scores, spread of unlicensed weapons, Sunnis and Shi’ites, Unlicensed firearms spreading in Kuwait as Shi’ite-Sunni tensions rise, Walid Al Tabtabei