(Bloomberg) -- Kuwait’s new ruler rebuked elected lawmakers and cabinet ministers for failing to cooperate in the right ways to drive through reforms in the oil-rich but politically dysfunctional Gulf state.

“There are obligations that the two authorities are required to tackle to serve the public interest,” Emir Sheikh Mishaal Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah said in a speech in parliament on Wednesday. “However, we haven’t witnessed any change or correction in the path.”

Shortly after the 83-year-old spoke, the cabinet resigned, in a move that was widely expected. Sheikh Mishaal eulogized his predecessor and half-brother, Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah, who died on Dec. 16 at the age of 86.

Read More: Sheikh Nawaf, Kuwaiti Emir Who Sought Political Reset, Dies

“Government parliament non-cooperation is conveniently and repeatedly used in Kuwaiti political discourse as the main source of tension,” said Bader Al-Saif, an assistant professor at Kuwait University and a non-resident fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. “Today’s speech ironically flipped this around, noting that recent government parliament cooperation has ironically damaged the country’s interests when it comes to some of the issues related to recent employment, amnesty and citizenship related decisions.”

Kuwait is a key US ally in the Middle East, one of the world’s biggest oil exporters and home to a sovereign wealth fund valued at over $700 billion. It also has the Gulf Cooperation Council’s only elected parliament.

Yet it’s been roiled by tussles between the government, appointed by the ruling Al-Sabah family, and the parliament for years.

Kuwait Has a New Ruler Who Now Must Fix Its Old Problems

Disagreements between the two have scuppered plans to open up the economy more to the private sector and foreign companies, leaving the country trailing fast-reforming neighbors such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

(Updates with analyst comment in fourth paragraph)

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