Kuwait’s deputy ruler and the late emir’s half brother, Meshal Al Ahmad Al Jaber, 83, is believed to be the world’s oldest crown prince. He is in line to take over as Kuwait’s ruler and is one of last octogenarian leaders in the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf.
In late November, the emir was rushed to a hospital because of an unspecified illness. In the time since, Kuwait had been waiting for news about his health. State-run news previously reported that he had traveled to the United States for unspecified medical checks in March 2021.
The health of Kuwait’s leaders remains a sensitive matter in the Middle Eastern nation that borders Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Kuwait has experienced internal power struggles behind palace doors.
Sheikh Nawaf’s contemporaries, born before oil fully transformed Kuwait from a trading hub into a petrostate, have been fading away with age. The passing away of Sheikh Nawaf’s generation and the emergence of younger, more assertive rulers in other gulf Arab nations has increased pressure on the Kuwaiti royal family to pass power to the next generation.
In neighboring Saudi Arabia, King Salman, 87, is widely believed to have placed day-to-day rule of his nation in the hands of his 38-year-old son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Sheikh Nawaf was sworn in as emir in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic and after the death of his predecessor, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah. The breadth and depth of emotion over the loss of Sheikh Sabah, known for his diplomacy and peacemaking, was felt across the region.
Sheikh Nawaf previously served as Kuwait’s interior and defense minister. His political fortunes were never certain despite being part of the ruling Sabah family. Sheikh Nawaf was defense minister when Kuwaiti military forces rapidly collapsed during Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s invasion of his country in August 1990. He was widely criticized for his decisions during the war.
A letter reportedly sent to the country’s ruler at the time alleged that Sheikh Nawaf had ordered tank crews not to fire on the approaching Iraqi forces. The reasoning behind the alleged order remains unclear. Iraq’s forces, hardened by years at war with Iran, easily overwhelmed the country.
A U.S.-led multinational force expelled the Iraqis from Kuwait in 1991. Kuwait’s leaders never published the findings of investigations into the government’s actions related to the invasion.
“Our main target is the liberation. After we return, we will repair our own house,” Sheikh Nawaf said in 1991. “You have to reform yourself and correct any previous mistakes.”
He was demoted and did not hold a cabinet-level position again for about a decade afterward, serving as a deputy chief of the country’s national guard. Even on his return to the cabinet, analysts viewed him as not particularly active in government, although his low-key approach later appealed to some Kuwaitis who ultimately moved on from his wartime performance.
Sheikh Nawaf was a largely uncontroversial choice for emir, although his advancing age led analysts to suggest that his tenure would be short. It was. His was the third-shortest tenure of any emir since the beginning of Sabah family control in 1752.
During his term, he had been focused on domestic issues as the nation struggled through political disputes — including the overhaul of Kuwait’s welfare system — which prevented the country from taking on debt. That circumstance has left the country with little in its coffers to pay bloated public sector salaries, despite generating immense wealth from its oil reserves.
In 2021, Sheikh Nawaf issued a long-awaited amnesty decree, pardoning and reducing the sentences of nearly three dozen Kuwaiti dissidents in a move aimed at defusing a major government standoff. He issued another just before his illness, aiming to resolve a political impasse in which Kuwait conducted three parliamentary elections under his rule.
“He earned his title — he has a nickname here, they call him ‘the emir of pardons,’” said Bader al-Saif, an assistant professor of history at Kuwait University. “No one in modern Kuwaiti history has gone this far to reach out to the other side, to open up.”
Kuwait is perceived as having the gulf’s freest parliament, one that allows for a degree of dissent.
Meanwhile, the nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, restored ties with member nation Qatar after years of a boycott, easing regional tensions and allowing Sheikh Nawaf to focus on issues at home.
Kuwait has the world’s sixth-largest known oil reserves. It has been a staunch U.S. ally since the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Kuwait hosts some 13,500 American troops as well as the forward headquarters of the U.S. Army in the Middle East.
