(AP file photo) Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah attends the 40th Gulf Cooperation Council Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Kuwait state television said Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2020, the country's 91-year-old ruler, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, had died.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed grief over the demise of Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Amir of the State of Kuwait. Taking to Twitter, PM Modi said, "Today, the State of Kuwait and the Arab world has lost a beloved leader, India a close friend, and the world a great statesman. His Highness played a leading role in strengthening our bilateral relations, and always took special care of the Indian community in Kuwait," PM Modi tweeted.
Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, the ruler of Kuwait who drew on his decades as the oil-rich nation’s top diplomat to push for closer ties to Iraq after the 1990 Gulf War and solutions to other regional crises, died Tuesday. He was 91.
In a Middle East replete with elderly rulers, Sheikh Sabah stood out for his efforts at pushing for diplomacy to resolve a bitter dispute between Qatar and other Arab nations that continues to this day.
His 2006 ascension in Kuwait, a staunch US ally since the American-led war that expelled occupying Iraqi troops, came after parliament voted unanimously to oust his predecessor, the ailing Sheikh Saad Al Abdullah Al Sabah, just nine days into his rule.
(With inputs from AP)
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