Kuwait’s Anxieties Over Succession Add to Economy Woes
Unlike in Saudi Arabia, the failing health of its aging ruler opens the door to uncertainty.
As one ruler’s sun sets, uncertainty rises.
Photographer: Yasser Al-Zayyat/AFP via Getty Images
Even in the best of times, the failing health of an aging monarch can cause anxiety for their subjects. That goes double during a period of economic hardship — and double again, when the succession is unclear.
The Arab world’s two oldest heads of state were hospitalized, less than a week apart, while their countries are both struggling with the twin economic blows of the coronavirus pandemic and low oil prices. But although Saudis know exactly what to expect in the event King Salman bin Abdulaziz, 84, is called by a higher authority, the Kuwaiti succession after the current emir, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah, 91, is less clear.