The new emir of Kuwait has agreed to step down from his new position, ending a weeklong leadership crisis that erupted last Sunday when the previous emir, Sheikh Jabir Al-Ahmad A-‘Sabah, passed away.
According to the country’s 1964 succession law, the late emir was supposed to be automatically succeeded by Crown Prince Sheikh Sa’ad Al-‘Abdallah A-‘Sabah, a distant cousin he elected as his heir apparent in 1978.
But the portly Sheikh Sa’ad is himself in his mid-seventies and suffers from colon problems. He was expected to face a parliamentary vote on Tuesday to remove him from power on grounds of his ill health.
His abdication, which will be made official on Tuesday, means the parliament will not have to vote the ailing emir out of office, a move which would have been unprecedented.
He will be succeeded by Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh ‘Sabah Al-Ahmad A-‘Sabah.
The crisis highlighted a rivalry between the two branches of the ‘Sabah ruling dynasty – the Jabir branch, which produced the late emir and the prime minister, and the Salim branch of which Sheikh Sa’ad is a member.