At the top of the Kuwaiti state, rejuvenation is not on the agenda and probably neither is change. After the announcement, Tuesday, September 29, of the death of Emir Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, who reigned over the petromonarchy since 2006 and died at the age of 91, in the hospital in Minnesota ( North of the United States) where he had been treated since July, it was the Crown Prince, his 83-year-old half-brother Nawaf Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah, who was inducted.
The new monarch, a veteran of Kuwaiti politics, who was defense minister during the Iraqi invasion of 1990, was sworn in on Wednesday before Parliament, the key institution of the emirate, which enjoys the most political system. open from the Arabian Peninsula. His face covered with an anti-coronavirus mask, Sheikh Nawaf pledged to continue the work of his predecessor, a tireless mediator, attached to the unity of the Gulf and the Arab world.
The funeral of the deceased, whose remains were repatriated by plane from the United States, took place on the same day, in a mosque in the capital, Kuwait, in a small circle, due to measures to fight the Covid epidemic -19. While the dignitaries authorized to participate in the prayer bowed down, the new emir remained seated in an armchair, a sign of probably fragile health. Only two foreign officials attended the ceremony, the Emir of Qatar, Tamim Ben Hamad Al-Thani, and the Minister of the Interior of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saïf Ben Zayed Al-Nahyan.
Cold war between monarchies
The presence of representatives of these two states, which have been at loggerheads for more than three years, attests to the aura enjoyed by Sheikh Sabah. His country’s foreign minister for four decades, he was a pole of stability in a region full of turbulence, always ready to defuse crises and collect humanitarian aid for his Arab brothers. Both Iran and Saudi Arabia, the two powers fighting for supremacy in the Middle East, have also hailed the memory of the wise old man from the Gulf.
Given his age, his proximity to the deceased and the weight of Parliament in the Kuwaiti decision-making process, it is highly unlikely that Sheikh Nawaf will deviate from this very consensual line. During Sabah’s hospitalization, the one who was still crown prince sent a written message to the Qatari Emir. The initiative has been interpreted as a sign of his desire to remain neutral in the cold war which is tearing apart the monarchies of the peninsula, and even to reactivate the mediation efforts of his elder brother.
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