Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Kuwait emir dies

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Kuwait emir dies

    This may get interesting.

    By Haitham Haddadin
    22 minutes ago

    KUWAIT (Reuters) - The ruler of U.S. ally Kuwait, Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah, who rebuilt his Gulf Arab state after U.S.-led forces drove
    Saddam Hussein's occupation troops from the country in 1991, died on Sunday at the age of 78.

    Kuwait's cabinet named the major oil producer's ailing crown prince, Sheikh Saad al-Abdulla al-Sabah, as its ruler after the emir's death from a long illness.

    Analysts expected no change in Kuwait's oil policies and pro-Western outlook under the 76-year-old new emir, who is largely incapacitated by illness.

    He is likely to be a figurehead while Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah runs the country -- a role he has played over the past four years.

    "According to the constitution ... and in accordance with the rules of succession, the cabinet calls on the heir and crown prince ... as emir of the country," said a cabinet statement read out on state television.

    Sheikh Jaber suffered a brain hemorrhage in 2001, which limited his duties in the country.

    He fled to Saudi Arabia in 1990 when Iraqi troops invaded but returned after the occupation ended to lead the rebuilding of a land scarred by killing, torture and brutal Iraqi rule. He also oversaw the rehabilitation of oilfields set on fire by retreating Iraqi troops.

    U.S.-led forces used Kuwait as its main staging ground for the 2003 invasion of
    Iraq that toppled Saddam. Kuwait hosts up to 30,000 U.S. troops and is home to some 13,000 U.S. citizens.

    Hundreds of Kuwaitis and expatriates, some sobbing and reading the Koran, gathered outside the emir's Dasman palace in Kuwait City.

    "This is the only emir I have known since my birth, he has been helpful to orphans like me; he was the one who looked after us and today he is dead; that's why I am crying," law student Fahd al-Ajmi, 23, told Reuters.

    AVERTING CRISIS

    Analysts said Sheikh Saad's appointment was aimed at averting a crisis within the ruling family, which traditionally must alternate the leadership between its two branches.

    "The country has been run by (Prime Minister) Sheikh Sabah for years. Policy will remain stable. It will not be affected by any change in the guard," former Kuwaiti oil minister Ali al-Baghli told Reuters.

    The ill health of Sheikh Jaber and Sheikh Saad caused concern at home and abroad over the leadership.

    Calls by parliamentarians and members of the opposition for the Kuwaiti government to replace the crown prince and to share power have also clouded the succession process.

    Kuwaiti oil officials also said on Sunday the country would stick to its policy of keeping global markets well supplied.

    "Kuwait's (oil) policy will not change," an official, who declined to be named, told Reuters by telephone. "The oil sector is running as normal, both production and exports."

    Kuwait, which controls about 10 percent of known global oil reserves. pumps at around 2.68 million barrels per day (bpd).

    Condolences poured in from several Arab leaders. Sheikh Jaber will be buried later on Sunday at the Sulaibikhat cemetery. Kuwait declared a 40-day period of mourning and government offices, banks and the stock market would close for three days.

    The emir was the 13th ruler of a dynasty that has ruled Kuwait for more than two centuries. The Anaiza tribe, to which the al-Sabahs belong, migrated from the Arabian hinterland.

    The ruling family has come under pressure from both Islamists and pro-Western liberals to loosen its grip on the government and share power.

    Kuwait has cracked down on Islamists opposed to the U.S. military presence in the country, though diplomats say radical Islam is taking hold among Kuwaiti youth.

    (Additional reporting by H. Hashim Ahmed, Oussama Mohammad and Stephanie McGehee in Kuwait, Ghaida Ghantous in Dubai)
    Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.
    "Hating America is something best left to Mobius. He is an expert Yank hater.
    He also hates Texans and Australians, he does diversify." ~ Braindead

  • #2
    Re: Kuwait emu dies

    I hope it has nothing to do with that dreaded bird flu.
    Attached Files

    Comment


    • #3
      In the 70s, when that sheikh visited the GDR, there was a joke about how he introduces his family to Honecker.

      Only works in German though

      It implies he has Saudi relatives (in laws), no idea if that is correct or not. As he shows the picutres he's saying "Das ist meine saudi-arabische Ehefrau, das ist mein saudi-arabischer Schwager. Und das hier, das ist meine Schwiegermutter, die Sau-die-arabische."

      Comment


      • #4

        Comment


        • #5
          WAIT A MINUTE

          I THOUGHT THE US LIBERATED KUWAIT IN 1991

          but they are ruled by a monarch... I guess not...

          What's the difference between a dictator and an Emir?



















          there's no punch-line here... I seriously want to know...
          To us, it is the BEAST.

          Comment


          • #6
            You misunderstand, the US liberated Kuwait so they had the freedom to be dictated
            Speaking of Erith:

            "It's not twinned with anywhere, but it does have a suicide pact with Dagenham" - Linda Smith

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by Provost Harrison
              You misunderstand, the US liberated Kuwait so they had the freedom to be dictated
              I see

              it all makes sense to me now!
              To us, it is the BEAST.

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by Ecthy
                In the 70s, when that sheikh visited the GDR, there was a joke about how he introduces his family to Honecker.

                Only works in German though

                It implies he has Saudi relatives (in laws), no idea if that is correct or not. As he shows the picutres he's saying "Das ist meine saudi-arabische Ehefrau, das ist mein saudi-arabischer Schwager. Und das hier, das ist meine Schwiegermutter, die Sau-die-arabische."

                Har har har.
                Speaking of Erith:

                "It's not twinned with anywhere, but it does have a suicide pact with Dagenham" - Linda Smith

                Comment


                • #9
                  To us, it is the BEAST.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    If I get that correctly, he's calling his mother in law a "pig from arabia", which in German sounds the same as "Saudi Arabian"...
                    12-17-10 Mohamed Bouazizi NEVER FORGET
                    Stadtluft Macht Frei
                    Killing it is the new killing it
                    Ultima Ratio Regum

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      KH be lingo genius

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Yes, I figured that much out, hence the laughter...slightly sarcastic with it being a crap joke
                        Speaking of Erith:

                        "It's not twinned with anywhere, but it does have a suicide pact with Dagenham" - Linda Smith

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Sava
                          WAIT A MINUTE

                          I THOUGHT THE US LIBERATED KUWAIT IN 1991

                          but they are ruled by a monarch... I guess not...

                          What's the difference between a dictator and an Emir?
                          In the case of Kuwait, an elected consultative assembly that existed before 1991. Criticized as undemocratic cause only males who were native Kuwaitis could vote. Aside from the gender disc that excluded half of kuwaitis, the fact that over half of Kuwait is foreign born made this a very limited electorate.

                          Since then they have given the vote to women, IIUC. I dont know what theyve done about the foreigners.

                          They also have a relatively free press, at least as compared to Saudi Arabia, or to Saddam era Iraq.

                          So I think its still quite fair to say we liberated them in 1991.
                          "A person cannot approach the divine by reaching beyond the human. To become human, is what this individual person, has been created for.” Martin Buber

                          Comment

                          Working...
                          X