A Blessing and a Curse for Oman’s New Sultan
One of the Middle East’s great balancing acts is about to be put to a new test.
Haitham is carrying heavy expectations.
Photographer: AFP via Getty Images
In the summer of 2018, arguing that death was the surest agent of change in the Middle East, I included Oman’s Sultan Qaboos bin Said in the list of four leaders whose passing would shake up the region. The three others were King Salman bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei of Iran and Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani of Iraq.
Noting Oman’s unusual succession mechanism — Qaboos would nominate an heir in a sealed letter, to be opened upon his death, but only if his extended family couldn’t arrive at a consensus among themselves — I predicted that “a process so peculiar can hardly be expected to proceed smoothly.”