Who’s Oman’s New Sultan Haitham bin Tariq? Q&A

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.