Oman News: New Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Succeeds Qaboos - Bloomberg:
Oman’s new sultan takes charge of a nation that has known only one ruler for the past half-century. And while the country Haitham bin Tariq now leads is nothing like the impoverished backwater his cousin Qaboos took over back in 1970, he, too, is grabbing the reins in complicated times.
Qaboos, who died Friday at 79, oversaw the transformation of Oman from a collection of sleepy villages to a developed nation powered by oil revenue. A foreign policy maverick, he also cemented his country’s reputation as an oasis of calm in a turbulent region.
But Oman, strategically located near key oil shipping lines at the eastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, has been struggling for years to pull itself out of an economic slump, and the quiet quashing of dissent has become commonplace. Under Haitham, Qaboos’s handpicked successor, the small nation famous for its independent ways may also need to rethink alliances.
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Sultan Haitham bin Tariq speaks during a swearing in ceremony on Jan. 11.
Source: AFP via Getty Images |
Oman’s new sultan takes charge of a nation that has known only one ruler for the past half-century. And while the country Haitham bin Tariq now leads is nothing like the impoverished backwater his cousin Qaboos took over back in 1970, he, too, is grabbing the reins in complicated times.
Qaboos, who died Friday at 79, oversaw the transformation of Oman from a collection of sleepy villages to a developed nation powered by oil revenue. A foreign policy maverick, he also cemented his country’s reputation as an oasis of calm in a turbulent region.
But Oman, strategically located near key oil shipping lines at the eastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, has been struggling for years to pull itself out of an economic slump, and the quiet quashing of dissent has become commonplace. Under Haitham, Qaboos’s handpicked successor, the small nation famous for its independent ways may also need to rethink alliances.
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