Скачать или смотреть Kuwait / China / USA - Elderly Kuwaiti ruler Sheikh Al Sabah dies at 91 / Crown prince Sheikh Nawaf

(29 Sep 2020) STORYLINE

Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, the ruler of Kuwait who drew on his decades as the oil-rich nation’s top diplomat to push for closer ties to Iraq after the 1990 Gulf War and solutions to other regional crises, died September 29th. He was 91.
In a Middle East replete with elderly rulers, Sheikh Sabah stood out for his efforts at pushing for diplomacy to resolve a bitter dispute between Qatar and other Arab nations that continues to this day.
His 2006 ascension in Kuwait, a staunch U.S. ally since the American-led war that expelled occupying Iraqi troops, came after parliament voted unanimously to oust his predecessor, the ailing Sheikh Saad Al Abdullah Al Sabah, just nine days into his rule.
Yet as Kuwait’s ruling emir, he struggled with internal political disputes, the fallout of the 2011 Arab Spring protests and seesawing crude oil prices that chewed into a national budget providing cradle-to-grave subsidies.
"He represents the older generation of Gulf leaders who valued discretion and moderation and the importance of personal ties amongst fellow monarchs,” said Kristin Diwan, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington who studies Kuwait. “No question he has suffered from the lack of deference and respect shown by the younger and more brash young princes holding power today.”
State television announced his death after playing Quranic prayers.
Sheikh Sabah is expected to be succeeded by his half brother, the crown prince Sheikh Nawaf Al Ahmad Al Sabah.
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Kuwait's Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al Ahmad Al Sabah became the oil-rich nation's new ruling emir late on September 29th, state media reported, reaching the highest post in the country after decades in its security services.
Sheikh Nawaf, 83, had served as the crown prince since 2006, jumping a traditional order of alternating rule between the Al Jaber and the Al Salam branches of the country's ruling family.
While his taking of the throne came as prescribed by Kuwait's constitution, there likely will be negotiations behind the scenes in the weeks ahead over who will become the country's next crown prince.
Those discussions likely will take time as Kuwait mourns its late ruler, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, who died September 29th at the age of 91.
Sheikh Nawaf, like Sheikh Sabah, was born before Kuwait discovered the oil that would make this small nation among the richest in the world.
Born June 25, 1937, Sheikh Nawaf became a governor of Kuwait's Hawalli region and later the country's interior minister, a position he held for nearly a decade.
He served as Kuwait's defence minister beginning in 1988 and held that position in 1990, when Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and occupied the nation for seven months.
Sheikh Nawaf briefly served as social affairs and labour minister after the war, then as the deputy chief of Kuwait's National Guard and again as interior minister.
He became the crown prince under Sheikh Sabah in February 2006.
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