The Sultan Qabús of Oman death leaves the bay without an intermediary His liberal use of authority did not prevent him from being tireless against the slightest sign of dissatisfaction
The Sultan of Oman's death leaves the bay without an intermediary. His liberal use of authority did not prevent him from being tireless against the slightest sign of dissatisfaction.
Sultan Qabús of Oman has died at age 79 and after half a century at the head of the country, as reported by the royal palace on Saturday. The rapid announcement of his succession by one of his cousins and until now Minister of Culture, Haitham Bin Tariq al Said, 65, closes decades of speculation about the absence of a designated heir in this country of the Arabian Peninsula, most of whose four million inhabitants have not known another monarch. However, it comes at a time of special uncertainty in the region over the confrontation between Iran and the United States; The discreet diplomacy promoted by Qabús has helped reduce tensions and reach agreements. The relay to the front of the throne tests the strength of the Omani institutions and it remains to be seen if their successor will maintain that role of mediator.
Qabus Bin Said al Said (Salalah, 1940) came to power in 1970 in a coup against his father. Member of the 14th generation descendant of the founder of the Al Bu Saidi dynasty, who established the sultanate in the seventeenth century after expelling the Portuguese from Muscat, was educated in India and at the Sandhurst Military Academy in the United Kingdom; He also spent a year with the British Army in Germany since then, and always with the discrete advice of its British advisors, he used oil revenues (some reserves estimated at 5,500 million barrels) to modernize the country and make it one of the best governed and most stable in the region. However, during the last decade, it became clear that state businesses and contracts were concentrating on a few families and the perception that oil wealth was no longer distributed with equity was extended. His authoritarianism benevolent earned him the affection of most of his subjects, but he has not prepared the country for a transition.
Oman lived his own version of the Arab spring in 2011, to which the Sultan responded in part with the traditional formula of more investment and state employment, partly with political reforms such as the extension of Parliament's legislative powers, but without renouncing His absolute power. The demonstrations ceased with the release of all detainees in the protests but also narrowed the scope for criticism with the imprisonment of bloggers and human rights activists.
In foreign policy, the Sultan chose to balance the weight of neighboring Saudi Arabia while maintaining its traditional good relations with Iran even after the 1979 revolution. That independence allowed him to become a discreet mediator in regional crises and extend his services to the United States. It was the Omani monarch who achieved the release of the three American hikers imprisoned in the Islamic Republic in 2011 and housed in his palace the secret talks between the two enemies that allowed launching the negotiations that led to the 2015 nuclear agreement, now in crisis.
In recent years he had been treated for colon cancer in Germany, which encouraged concern about the absence of an heir. Although in 1976 Qabus married his cousin Nawal Bint Tariq, the marriage barely lasted three years and they had no children. So for some time, I planned on the sultanate the doubt about the successor. The secrecy surrounding the succession takes years
Attracting the attention of observers. The Omani Constitution, the original law given by the Sultan in 1996 and amended in 2011, stated that the royal family would decide the new sultan, but if it failed to agree in three days, the deceased made his choice. A letter was left with. Apparently, it is not necessary to open it.
Sultan Qabús of Oman has died at age 79 and after half a century at the head of the country, as reported by the royal palace on Saturday. The rapid announcement of his succession by one of his cousins and until now Minister of Culture, Haitham Bin Tariq al Said, 65, closes decades of speculation about the absence of a designated heir in this country of the Arabian Peninsula, most of whose four million inhabitants have not known another monarch. However, it comes at a time of special uncertainty in the region over the confrontation between Iran and the United States; The discreet diplomacy promoted by Qabús has helped reduce tensions and reach agreements. The relay to the front of the throne tests the strength of the Omani institutions and it remains to be seen if their successor will maintain that role of mediator.
Qabus Bin Said al Said (Salalah, 1940) came to power in 1970 in a coup against his father. Member of the 14th generation descendant of the founder of the Al Bu Saidi dynasty, who established the sultanate in the seventeenth century after expelling the Portuguese from Muscat, was educated in India and at the Sandhurst Military Academy in the United Kingdom; He also spent a year with the British Army in Germany since then, and always with the discrete advice of its British advisors, he used oil revenues (some reserves estimated at 5,500 million barrels) to modernize the country and make it one of the best governed and most stable in the region. However, during the last decade, it became clear that state businesses and contracts were concentrating on a few families and the perception that oil wealth was no longer distributed with equity was extended. His authoritarianism benevolent earned him the affection of most of his subjects, but he has not prepared the country for a transition.
Oman lived his own version of the Arab spring in 2011, to which the Sultan responded in part with the traditional formula of more investment and state employment, partly with political reforms such as the extension of Parliament's legislative powers, but without renouncing His absolute power. The demonstrations ceased with the release of all detainees in the protests but also narrowed the scope for criticism with the imprisonment of bloggers and human rights activists.
In foreign policy, the Sultan chose to balance the weight of neighboring Saudi Arabia while maintaining its traditional good relations with Iran even after the 1979 revolution. That independence allowed him to become a discreet mediator in regional crises and extend his services to the United States. It was the Omani monarch who achieved the release of the three American hikers imprisoned in the Islamic Republic in 2011 and housed in his palace the secret talks between the two enemies that allowed launching the negotiations that led to the 2015 nuclear agreement, now in crisis.
In recent years he had been treated for colon cancer in Germany, which encouraged concern about the absence of an heir. Although in 1976 Qabus married his cousin Nawal Bint Tariq, the marriage barely lasted three years and they had no children. So for some time, I planned on the sultanate the doubt about the successor. The secrecy surrounding the succession takes years
Attracting the attention of observers. The Omani Constitution, the original law given by the Sultan in 1996 and amended in 2011, stated that the royal family would decide the new sultan, but if it failed to agree in three days, the deceased made his choice. A letter was left with. Apparently, it is not necessary to open it.
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