The Kuwaiti cabinet on Saturday amended a controversial electoral law and set December 1 as the date for snap polls, acting on orders from the emir.

"The cabinet approved the amendment of article 2 of the electoral law to change the voting system ... and approved a decree to invite voters to elect a new national assembly on December 1," it said in a statement.

Kuwaiti police on Thursday arrested two former opposition MPs for making statements at a public rally deemed critical of the oil-rich Gulf state ruler, an opposition leader said.

"Two former (Islamist) MPs, Falah al-Sawwagh and Bader al-Dahoum, have just been arrested by the state security police," Mussallam al-Barrak, himself a former deputy, told reporters.

Kuwait's public prosecution said Wednesday it had suspended investigations into highly publicized allegations of corruption against 13 former MPs, saying it had found no evidence of any crime.

"Investigation and interrogation (by the public prosecution) did not find any evidence to prove any crime like bribery, graft, money laundering or others against any suspect in the case," said a statement by the prosecution service.

Kuwait Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah on Sunday issued a decree dissolving the 2009 parliament, just over three months since it was reinstated by the constitutional court, state media said.

"An emiri decree was issued to dissolve the 2009 parliament," said state-run Kuwait television.

Kuwait's constitutional court ruled on Tuesday that the Gulf emirate's electoral constituency law was in line with the constitution, rejecting a government appeal, an Agence France Presse correspondent reported.

"The recourse is rejected," judge Faisal al-Murshid declared in a court verdict, a day after thousands of opposition supporters rallied against the government's attempt to redefine the constituencies.

A major U.S.-led naval minesweeping exercise got underway in the Gulf Sunday as tension remain high over Iran and its controversial nuclear program.

The exercise kicked off on the same day the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards warned of retaliation against the Strait of Hormuz, Israel and nearby U.S. bases if his country is attacked, and as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted on a "red line" from Washington, claiming Tehran is "90 percent" toward having a nuclear bomb.

President Michel Suleiman hoped on Tuesday that the abduction of the Kuwaiti national Walid al-Houti will not have an impact on the Lebanese-Kuwaiti bilateral relations.

“Kuwait has always supported Lebanon and offered help in various sectors,” Suleiman told Kuwaiti ambassador to Lebanon Abdul-Al al-Qenai.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati stressed on Monday that preliminary investigations indicate that the abduction of Kuwaiti national Issam Ibrahim Nasser al-Houti was not “politically motivated.”

“He wasn’t targeted because he is a Kuwaiti citizen,” Miqati told An Nahar newspaper.

Speaker Nabih Berri on Sunday told his Kuwaiti counterpart Jassem al-Kharafi during a phone conversation that Lebanon is eager to end the abduction of Kuwaiti citizen Issam al-Houti soon, Kuwait’s state news agency KUNA reported.

“All Lebanese security agencies are on the highest state of alert to find the Kuwaiti citizen and guarantee his immediate release,” al-Kharafi quoted Berri as saying.

Speaker Nabih Berri noted that Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Lebanon is not strictly aimed at Christians, but all of the Lebanese people, especially in light of recent developments in the country, reported the daily An Nahar on Sunday.

He called on “everyone to welcome the visit and benefit from it in order to assert Lebanon’s role in the region given the critical situation.”