Sheikh
Sabah: Kuwait's seasoned strongman
By Omar Hasan
AFP
KUWAIT CITY
Petroleumworld.com 01 16 06
Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, widely
expected to become crown prince after the death of the emir on
Sunday, is a shrewd politician who has been de facto ruler for
the past few years.
Sheikh Sabah, half-brother of late emir Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad
al-Sabah, has been a leading political figure in times of crisis
in the emirate, which sits on 10 percent of the world's oil reserves.
He has been running Kuwait's day-to-day affairs due to the poor
health of both the late emir and his crown prince Sheikh Saad
al-Abdullah al-Sabah, who now automatically succeeds to the throne.
Viewed as a liberal reformist, the 75-year-old statesman is known
to be the architect of the country's foreign policy for the last
four decades, both as foreign minister and then prime minister.
He is known for steering Kuwaiti diplomacy through rough patches
like the Iraqi invasion in 1990, tensions with Iran and during
the formation of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council in 1981.
Sheikh Sabah is the fourth son of Kuwait's 10th emir Sheikh Ahmad
al-Jaber al-Sabah, who ruled between 1921 and 1950.
He took his first government post as minister of guidance and
information in 1962.
A year later, he was named foreign minister, a position he held
until July 2003 when he became prime minister, except for a brief
interruption between 1991 and 1992 following the Gulf War.
In addition, he held the finance and oil portfolio between December
1965 and February 1967, and served as acting information minister
between February 1971 and February 1975.
Sheikh Sabah was elevated to the rank of first deputy prime minister,
in addition to being Kuwait's chief diplomat, in October 1998
after the crown prince Sheikh Saad underwent colon surgery.
Following the crown prince's illness, Sheikh Sabah was delegated
vast executive powers until the posts of crown prince and premier
were split for the first time in July 2003 when he became prime
minister.
The ailing emir also started delegating public official business
to Sheikh Sabah in early 2004 after his health deteriorated.
Sheikh Sabah himself underwent surgery to remove his appendix
in August 2002. He also had a heart pacemaker operation in February
2000.
Unlike other leading Al-Sabah family figures who have many children,
Sheikh Sabah has only two sons. He had one daughter who died in
2002.
His elder son Sheikh Nasser is a top advisor to the crown prince
while his other son Sheikh Hamad is a tycoon who chairs Kuwait
Projects Co, a holding company that manages billions of dollars
worth of assets in several Kuwaiti and foreign firms.
AFP
01/15/06
Copyright
© 2006 AFP. All rights reserved
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