The International Olympic Committee has suspended Kuwait for the second time in five years over government interference in the country’s Olympic movement.

The IOC met the government and the Kuwait Olympic Committee on 12 October in an effort to resolve the issue over a piece of sports legislation that was seen as threatening the autonomy of the Olympic body but the talks proved fruitless.

“The Olympic Movement in Kuwait has faced a number of issues to preserve its autonomy, in particular due to recently amended sports legislation in Kuwait,” the IOC said.

It said a 27 October deadline was set “to resolve the issues at hand or, at least, freeze the application of the conflictive provisions of the sports legislation until a reasonable and mutually acceptable solution could be found”.

But with the government not taking any action the IOC proceeded with the suspension, which could still be lifted in time for the country to be represented at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Kuwait was also banned in 2010 over a similar dispute but was reinstated before the 2012 London Olympics. In recent years the IOC has also suspended the national Olympic bodies of India, Ghana and Panama for political interference, though all were eventually reinstated, while Sri Lanka has been given until the end of the year to revise its sports legislation or face suspension.

Kuwait’s football federation was banned by Fifa earlier this month over government interference in the running of the Kuwait FA.