Kuwait's ruler, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, dies at 91

Saphora Smith and Charlene Gubash and The Associated Press
Updated ·2 min read

The ruler of the oil rich Gulf kingdom of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, has died, according to state television. He was 91.

"With great sadness and sorrow, we mourn to the Kuwaiti people, the Arab and Islamic nations, and the friendly peoples of the world, the death of the late His Highness Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Emir of the State of Kuwait who moved next to his Lord," the royal palace said in a statement, according to Kuwaiti state television.

State television announced his death after playing Quranic prayers.

The news of his death comes two months after the nonagenarian ruler was flown to the U.S. in a U.S. Air Force C-17 flying hospital, just days after undergoing unspecified surgery at home.

Kuwait has been a staunch U.S. ally since the American-led war that expelled occupying Iraqi troops.

Slightly smaller than the U.S. state of New Jersey, it is home to some of the world’s largest oil reserves.

Sheikh Sabah has served as emir since 2006, after parliament voted unanimously to oust his predecessor, the ailing Sheikh Saad Al Abdullah Al Sabah, just nine days into his rule.

Sheikh Sabah has pushed for diplomacy to solve regional issues, such as the ongoing boycott of Qatar by four Arab nations, and hosted major donor conferences for war-torn nations like Iraq and Syria.

His dramatic airlift to the United States in July had already sparked debate about what Kuwait will look like after his death.

Kuwait has both a royal family and a parliamentary body, the National Assembly, making it the most democratic of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, according to Bayly Winder, an analyst writing forthe Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a foreign affairs think tank headquartered in Washington.

Kuwait’s Cabinet later announced that Sheikh Sabah had been succeeded by his half brother, the crown prince Sheikh Nawaf Al Ahmad Al Sabah. On Sheikh Sabah's admission to hospital in Kuwait in July, the crown prince temporarily assumed some of his powers.

Born on June 16, 1929, Sheikh Sabah held a number of governmental posts before becoming Kuwait's foreign minister in 1963, a position he held for four decades.

His country’s greatest crisis came in 1990, when Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and occupied the nation for seven months. On Feb. 24, 1991, U.S. troops and their allies stormed into Kuwait. It ended 100 hours later.

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