Sultan Qaboos Passes Away: World Loses Wise Leader
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JUMADA ALAWWAL 17, 1441 AH SUNDAY, JANUARY 12, 2020 28 Pages Max 19º Min 08º 150 Fils Established 1961 ISSUE NO: 18032 The First Daily in the Arabian Gulf www.kuwaittimes.net Iran admits it ‘unintentionally’ India blows up luxury high-rises Asia’s Great Rivers: Climate crisis, Southampton stun Leicester 6 shot down Ukraine passenger jet 9 over environmental violations 19 pollution put billions at risk 28 as Chelsea, Man Utd cruise Sultan Qaboos passes away: World loses wise leader Successor vows to pursue peace • Amir sends condolences, orders three days of mourning MUSCAT/KUWAIT: Oman’s Sultan Qaboos bin Said, one Al-Sabah sent yesterday a cable of condolences to Sultan of the Middle East’s longest serving rulers who maintained Haitham, lamenting the death of Sultan Qaboos. He expressed the country’s neutrality in regional struggles, died on Friday great grief over the passing of Sultan Qaboos, expressing his and his cousin Haitham bin Tariq Al-Said was named as his deep condolences to the Omani leadership and people. HH successor in a smooth transition. With his death, the region Sheikh Sabah said that the late Sultan Qaboos was a brother loses a trusted and seasoned leader, seen as the father of and a personal friend with whom he shared admiration and modern Oman, who balanced ties between two neighbors respect, affirming that the world as well as the Gulf, Arab and locked in a regional struggle, Saudi Arabia to the west and Islamic nations had lost a very important figure and leader Iran to the north, as well as the United States. who dedicated his life to the causes of the Arab and Islamic In a televised speech, Sultan Haitham promised to uphold countries. HH the Amir commended the achievements of Oman Muscat’s policy of peaceful coexistence and friendly relations during the reign of Sultan Qaboos and also remembered the with all nations while further developing strong stance of Oman in support of Oman. “We will continue to assist in resolv- Kuwait during the 1990 Iraqi invasion and ing disputes peacefully,” he said. Oman and SEE PAGES 2 & 3 subsequent participation of Omani forces fellow Gulf states declared three days of offi- in the liberation of Kuwait. Sheikh Sabah cial mourning with flags to be flown at half- also recalled Sultan Qaboos’ aid of mast for Sultan Qaboos. His funeral procession passed along Kuwaiti citizens and his efforts to host them in Oman during Muscat’s main road amid tight security as Omanis thronged the occupation of Kuwait. HH the Amir affirmed his feelings of the palm tree-lined route, some reaching out their hands and sorrow towards Sultan Haitham, the leadership of Oman and others taking pictures. people. HH the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al- The casket, draped in the Omani flag, was carried into Jaber Al-Sabah and HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al- Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque where hundreds joined Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah sent similar cables. prayers inside. Sultan Qaboos was later buried in a family HH the Amir also ordered official mourning for three days cemetery. A family council convened yesterday and chose from yesterday. All government institutions will shut down and Haitham after opening a sealed envelope in which Qaboos the Kuwait flag will fly at half-mast for three days, according had secretly written his recommendation in case the family to a government statement read by Deputy Prime Minister, could not agree, opting to follow his “wise” guidance, state Minister of Interior and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs media said. Anas Al-Saleh. The education ministry also announced all Sultan Qaboos bin Said Sultan Haitham bin Tariq HH the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber schools in Kuwait will remain closed till Monday. — Agencies On behalf of the Zain Group Board of Directors, Management and employees, we would like to extend our heartfelt condolences to the people of the Sultanate of Oman on the passing of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said We hold members of the Royal Family in Oman in our closest thoughts and prayers at this difficult time, and stand with the people of this great Gulf nation in their sense of loss and grief. The Sultan shall remain a great inspiration within the Arab world and beyond for his leadership, vision, compassion and ability to unify people. 2 Local Sunday,January 12, 2020 Qaboos, the sultan who shielded Oman from region’s turmoil RIYADH: A file photo taken on December 19, 2011, shows a handout picture released by the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) leaders during their annual summit in Riyadh. The mon- archs of the six nations are (from left) Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, Kuwait’s Amir His Highness Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, Qatar’s Amir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Oman’s Sultan Qaboos bin MUSCAT: In this February 20, 2017 file photo, Oman’s Sultan Qaboos bin Said welcomes Kuwait’s Amir His Said, the United Arab Emirates’ Prime Minister and ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Highness Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah at Al-Alam Palace in Muscat, Oman during the Amir’s visit to and Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Issa Al Khalifa. —AFP the Sultanate. — KUNA MUSCAT: Oman’s Sultan Qaboos, who supply passes — and between regional with Qaboos in Muscat — a move that died on Friday aged 79, transformed the rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia. Qaboos raised Palestinian fears of a normalization former Arabian Peninsula backwater into maintained good ties with both nations, a of ties. Qaboos faced rare protests at the a modern state and sought-after media- balancing act that made his capital a height of the Arab Spring in 2011 and tor while shielding the sultanate from a must-stop for Western and Arab diplo- responded by sacking ministers accused region in turmoil. The intensely private mats as well as military chiefs alike. of corruption. sultan — the longest-reigning ruler in The sultan’s first foreign trip was to the modern Arab world — left no appar- Iran, whose shah — along with the All the top posts ent heir and the royal family was charged British — helped him quell the Marxist Qaboos assumed power as an with selecting a successor. insurgency he inherited from his father in unknown and spent his first years culti- Instead however they opted for the the restive Dhofar region. Those ties vating the respect of his countrymen, sultan’s own choice, his cousin Haitham endured through Iran’s 1979 Islamic rev- from the mountainous interior to the bin Tariq, who was named in a sealed let- olution that ushered in a Shiite theocracy. coast. “In the early years, he went village ter that Qaboos had prepared in case of Muscat would serve as the back channel to village and he had a weekly radio a deadlock. for talks between the United States and address — that was the only way to Qaboos was born on November 18, Iran in the lead-up to a landmark 2015 reach the entire population at the time,” 1940, into the centuries-old Al-Said nuclear deal. said Muscat-based public policy analyst dynasty in the southern provincial capital Qaboos also worked to preserve ties Ahmed al-Mukhaini. of Salalah, in an isolated country on the with Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Qaboos channeled revenues from margins of the modern world. Older wealthy six-nation Gulf Cooperation fledgling oil exports into infrastructure, Omanis recall the capital Muscat had no Council to which Oman belongs, but taking the country from having just a electricity or running water and the gates stuck to his principle of non-interference. handful of primary schools and some of the medieval city were locked at dusk. In 2015, Oman was the only GCC coun- eight kilometers (six miles) of paved The young Qaboos was sent abroad try not to join a Saudi-led military coali- roads to a modern state with well over for his education to Britain, attending the tion against Iran-backed Huthi rebels in 1,000 schools and a massive highway elite Sandhurst Royal Military Academy Yemen. It leveraged this neutrality to network. The sultan also commissioned from where he graduated in 1962. He mediate the release of multiple foreign an opera house for Muscat, its packed went on to join a British infantry battal- hostages captured by Yemen’s warring calendar a testament to his support for ion in Germany, returning home to bide factions. Muscat also maintained close the arts. his time under the close watch of his military and economic ties with Britain But Qaboos was no ceremonial father, Sultan Said bin Taymur. On July and the US. monarch. He held every top post, from 23, 1970, Qaboos became the new sultan, Unlike other Arab states, Qaboos did commander of the armed forces to pledging “a new era” for the nation. not contest Egypt’s 1979 peace treaty finance minister. In 1991, he offered a with Israel, opening a trade office in Tel modicum of democracy, creating a Guardian of the Strait Aviv in the mid-1990s — shuttered in Consultative Council — with elected Oman is strategically located on the 2000 during a Palestinian uprising. In members — to complement the State In this file photo taken on November 18, 2016 Oman’s Sultan Qaboos bin Said attends a Strait of Hormuz — the narrow seaway October 2018, Israeli Prime Minister Council — whose members he military parade in the capital Muscat, marking the Sultanate’s 46th National Day.