Kuwaiti protesters set ablaze a picture of Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah's chief Hassan Nasrallah during a protest in front the Lebanese embassy against Hezbollah and Iran's involvement in Syria, in Kuwait city on June 11,2013. (AFP)
KUWAIT CITY: Several Kuwaiti supermarket chains have begun boycotting products from Iran for its support of the Syrian regime, while activists staged a demonstration against the involvement of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement in the conflict.
At least nine cooperative consumer societies out of 50 in the Gulf state published announcements in the local media yesterday that they had taken Iranian products off their shelves in protest against Tehran’s backing of President Bashar Al Assad.
Cooperative societies control a majority of the retail consumer market in Kuwait.
One announcement said that the next step in the campaign would be to dismiss Iranian labourers working at societies and cancel their residency permits.
Around 50,000 Iranians work in Kuwait, mostly in low-paid jobs. Iranian exports to Kuwait are not huge and mainly comprise fish and food products.
Meanwhile, dozens of Islamist activists demonstrated outside the Lebanese embassy against the military intervention of Shia Hezbollah fighters on the side of Syrian regime forces against rebels.
Protesters burned posters of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.
Sunnis, who form more than 70 percent of the 1.2 million Kuwaitis, have been angered by the Syrian government onslaught on Sunni rebels and the support Assad has received from Iran and Hezbollah.
Around a dozen top Kuwaiti Sunni clerics have launched an online campaign to raise funds enough to arm 12,000 fighters and send them to Syria. Each fighter is estimated to cost $2,500.
The GCC said on Monday that it will take measures against Hezbollah members. The measures will affect their “residency permits, and financial and commercial transactions,” said a GCC statement, citing a ministerial council decision. AFP
