Iran Press/ Middle East: Calls to boycott French goods are growing around the world after President Emmanuel Macron's comments against Islam and Muslims.
Macron on Wednesday accused Muslims of separatism and vowed not to give up cartoons depicting Prophet Mohammed.
Kuwait's non-governmental Union of Consumer Co-operative Societies, which groups more than 70 establishments, issued the boycott directive in an Oct. 23 circular.
Union head Fahd Al-Kishti told Reuters the products had been removed in response to "repeated insults" against the Prophet.
The co-ops, some the size of hypermarkets, carry government-subsidized staples and account for a big part of retail in Kuwait.
Several Kuwaiti co-ops visited by Reuters on Sunday had cleared the shelves of items such as hair and beauty products made by French companies.
Kuwait's imports from France stood at 255 million dinars ($834.70 million) in 2019, according to Kuwait's Central Statistics bureau.
Kuwait's foreign minister, who summoned the French ambassador on Sunday, condemned the Oct. 16 killing as a horrendous crime but stressed the need to avoid insulting religion in official and political remarks that inflame hatred, enmity, and racism, the ministry tweeted.
In Saudi Arabia, the Arab world's largest economy, a hashtag calling for the boycott of French supermarket retailer Carrefour was the second most trending on Sunday.
France's foreign affairs ministry confirmed that there had been calls to boycott French products, notably food products, in several Middle Eastern countries as well as calls for demonstrations against France over the cartoons.
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