Middle East

Kuwait’s emir dies at 86

Kuwait’s ruling Emir Sheikh Nawaf Al Ahmad Al Sabah died Saturday after three years in power. He was 86.

“With great sadness and sorrow, we mourn… the death of Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, Emir of the State of Kuwait,” said a statement aired on Kuwaiti state television.

In November, Sheikh Nawaf was admitted to the hospital “due to an emergency health problem”, according to the official KUNA news agency, which did not elaborate on his illness. He was later declared in stable condition.

Given his age, his health has commonly been a concern during his term.

Sheikh Nawaf was named crown prince in 2006 by his half-brother Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah and took over as emir when Sheikh Sabah died in September 2020 at the age of 91.

He had to steer the economy through a crisis caused by a fall in oil prices in 2020.

The current crown prince, Sheikh Mishal al-Ahmad al-Sabah, another half-brother, is 83 and much attention will now be focused on whether a younger generation ruler is brought in by the family.

Kuwait – a conservative country where sovereign powers remain concentrated in the hands of the ruling Al Sabah family – is home to the most active and powerful parliament in the Persian Gulf.

But repeated standoffs between elected lawmakers and cabinet ministers installed by the ruling family have stymied development efforts and scared off investors.

Following a succession of resigning governments and dissolved parliaments, Kuwait’s current cabinet is its fifth in a year.

The political deadlock has delayed necessary reforms and blocked development projects, leaving infrastructure and education in disrepair and much of the population disgruntled.

Born in 1937, Sheikh Nawaf was the fifth son of Kuwait’s late ruler from 1921 to 1950 Sheikh Ahmad al-Jaber Al-Sabah.

He started his political career at the age of 25 as governor of Hawalli province, where he remained until 1978 when he started a decade as interior minister.

IFP Media Wire

Reports and views published in the Media Wire section have been retrieved from other news agencies and websites, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Iran Front Page (IFP) news website. The IFP may change the headlines of the reports in a bid to make them compatible with its own style of covering Iran News, and does not make any changes to the content. The source and URL of all reports and news stories are mentioned at the bottom of each article.

Recent Posts

Historic all-Women flight lands in Mashhad

For the first time in Iran's aviation history, a flight carrying an all-female crew and…

11 hours ago

Tehran Cyber Police shut down 40 Instagram accounts of harassers

Tehran’s Cyber Police Chief, Brigadier General Davood Moazzami Goudarzi, announced a crackdown on individuals causing…

13 hours ago

Qatar warns may stop gas shipments to EU amid Russia-Ukraine war

Doha will stop gas shipments to the EU if member states enforce new legislation on…

13 hours ago

UK armed forces struggling for recruits: Telegraph

At least 15,000 British soldiers left the country's Armed Forces between November 2023 and October…

14 hours ago

Nearly 85k Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine: Report

Journalists have identified the names of 84,761 Russian soldiers who died during the war in…

17 hours ago

US downs own warplane while bombing Yemen: Pentagon

The United States Navy has inadvertently shot down its own F/A-18 fighter jet in a…

18 hours ago