KUWAIT’S EMIR SHEIKH Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, mediator in some of the worst crises to grip the Gulf, died today at the age of 91.

Sheikh Sabah had earned a reputation as a shrewd, unshakeable leader who helped steer his country through the 1990 Iraqi invasion, crashes in global oil markets and crises in parliament and on the streets.

“With great sadness and sorrow, we mourn… the death of Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Emir of the State of Kuwait,” said Sheikh Ali Jarrah Al-Sabah, minister in charge of royal affairs, in a televised statement. 

State television had cut its regular programming and switched to a broadcast of Koranic recital before the announcement.

The emir, who had ruled the oil-rich Gulf state since 2006, had been receiving hospital treatment in the United States since July after undergoing surgery in Kuwait City. 

No details have been disclosed on the nature of his illness or treatment, and the palace did not say where he died. 

In his absence, his half-brother, Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, had been acting ruler. 

The 83-year-old Sheikh Nawaf, an elder statesman who has held high office for decades including the defence and interior ministries, is now expected to be appointed the new emir.

The 15th leader in a family that has ruled for over 250 years, Sheikh Sabah weathered Kuwait’s crises with shrewd judgement and an iron fist.

As the country’s top diplomat for nearly four decades, he fostered close ties with the West, most notably the United States which led the international coalition that freed Kuwait from Iraqi occupation in 1991. 

He later emerged as a mediator between the Gulf Cooperation Council and Iran, and between Saudi Arabia and Qatar following Riyadh’s 2017 decision to cut ties with Doha. 

In a sign of the respect that the emir commanded across the region’s political divides, the UAE, Egypt and Qatar all declared three days of mourning.

“The Arab and Muslim world has lost one of its most valuable leaders,” Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said in a tweet. 

Bahrain said that Kuwait had lost a “wise leader, an emir of humanity who loved what is good for the people.”

Even Yemen’s rival sides — who have yet to reach a political solution to the years-long war — paid tribute to the emir today. 

- © AFP 2020