Kuwait Emir Accepts Cabinet Resignation

Kuwait's ruler has accepted the resignation of the government in a bid to resolve a standoff with parliament, state news agency KUNA said on Sunday.

The announcement followed remarks by the parliament speaker earlier this month that Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, who has the last say in politics, had accepted the resignation.

Last month, the cabinet tendered its resignation over a request by three Sunni Islamist MPs to question the prime minister over a controversial visit by an Iranian Shi'ite cleric.

"The resignation of the Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah and the ministers has been accepted and they shall continue to manage urgent matters ... until a new cabinet is formed," said KUNA, citing a decree by the emir.

KUNA did not say on Sunday who the new prime minister would be, but the speaker had said that the emir had reappointed his nephew Sheikh Nasser as prime minister.

The new cabinet will be the fourth in the OPEC member since March 2007 after previous line-ups stepped down, or the emir reshuffled cabinets to end a protracted row with deputies. The ruler dissolved parliament in March in a bid to end a similar standoff.