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KUWAIT CITY, April 12 (UPI) -- Stoking additional controversy, a bloc of Islamist lawmakers warned that they would question Kuwait's prime minister or defense minister if the country went ahead with plans to purchase French-made Rafale warplanes. Islamist lawmakers lobbed the threat during a news conference at which they revealed what they called significant documents showing leading Kuwait military officials spurning the deal.
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"Signing the purchase agreement means we will grill whoever is responsible for authorizing the deal," said Faisal al-Muslim, a spokesman for the Reform and Development Bloc.
Details of the deal haven't been made public but local media and members of the Islamist bloc say the multibillion-dollar deal includes the purchase of 14-28 Rafale combat aircraft.
The war plane, Dassault Aviation's newest multirole aircraft, has been a flagship program for France's arms industry but is still seeking export buyers, despite major efforts by French authorities.
The aircraft is only in service with the French military and marks the main competition of U.S. aviation rivals Lockheed Martin and Boeing. The European Eurofighter is a competing force.
The Islamist bloc said its opposition had nothing to do with any animosity against France.
Lawmaker Jamaan al-Harbash said his bloc's opposition stemmed from the government's preferred pick of what was considered to be an outdated aircraft.
"The Rafale is technically inferior to some other planes because it belongs to the fourth generation while manufacturers are already into the fifth generation," Harbash was quoted saying by The Kuwaiti Times.
"The plane also has serious defects that have prevented any country in the world to buy it," the parliamentarian said without elaborating.
The controversy heated ahead of a scheduled meeting between Kuwait's prime minister, Sheik Nasser Mohammed Al-Ahmad, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris Friday. French media reported that the Rafale deal was due to figure high on the agenda of talks.
The deal has been scrutinized since Kuwait's parliament voted unanimously last November to ask the independent Audit Bureau to probe three planned arms deal with the United States and France.
The deals include an unspecified number of U.S.-manufactured military transport aircraft, an ammunition factory and the Rafale planes.
Still, the prospective deal and a bilateral defense accord signed recently between France and Kuwait signaled Paris growing defense reach in the Gulf.
Lobbying for France's aerospace giant, Dassault, Sarkozy visited Kuwait last year -- the first visit by a French president since 1991 -- to hopefully clinch the deal.
Months later, in April, the French military, which had come to the aid of Kuwait in its fight for liberation in 1991, had military maneuvers with their Kuwaiti counterparts in the emirate's desert.
Military experts view the prospective sale of Rafale plans to Kuwait as a sweetener that could lure other countries in the region to become Dassault clients.
