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| Qatar’s Ruler Said to Plan Abdication and Transfer of Power to Son | Qatar’s Ruler Said to Plan Abdication and Transfer of Power to Son |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| DOHA, Qatar — Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, the absolute ruler and emir of Qatar, who used his tiny nation’s oil and gas wealth to alter the course of events across the Middle East, siding with rebels in Syria and Libya, negotiating peace in Lebanon, hosting a United States military base and backing the militant group Hamas, told his family that he would abdicate and transfer power to his 33-year-old son, a Qatari official confirmed on Monday. | |
| At the age of only 61, the emir surprised the outside world, if not his subjects, with the announcement that he would cede power to his son, Sheik Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, and move aside his longtime foreign and prime minister, Sheik Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, 53. | |
| His decision, first reported by the news organization Al Jazeera, comes as Qatar’s hand — more precisely its checkbook — can be felt throughout the Middle East, raising questions about whether the son will continue Qatar’s high-profile interventionist policy. In recent days, Qatar has let the Taliban open an office in Doha and has helped keep the Syrian rebels armed. And while it is allied with Washington, it has also raised the West’s ire by financing radical Islamist rebels in various arenas. | |
| The soon-to-be emir, Sheik Tamim, has little international profile and has so far concentrated almost entirely on domestic issues. At the same time, the prime minister who is to be replaced, who is widely known as H.B.J. to distinguish him from the emir, aggressively pushed Qatar onto every world stage possible, first as foreign minister beginning in 1992 and then as both foreign and prime minister since 2007. | |
| “I’ve never seen any evidence that Sheik Tamim has a particular desire to focus internationally,” said David Roberts, the director of the Qatar branch of the Royal United Services Institute, a prominent British research center. “It’s never been in evidence.” | “I’ve never seen any evidence that Sheik Tamim has a particular desire to focus internationally,” said David Roberts, the director of the Qatar branch of the Royal United Services Institute, a prominent British research center. “It’s never been in evidence.” |
| The announcement set in motion planning for a “a two-day process” that is to start with a televised speech to the nation that Sheik Hamad will deliver at 8 a.m. Tuesday local time, the Qatari official said, followed an hour later by an event known as a “mubaya,” in which prominent citizens welcome his successor. The new emir is expected to deliver his first speech on Wednesday, the same day the cabinet is to resign and the new one, minus at least Prime Minister Hamad, is to be sworn in. | The announcement set in motion planning for a “a two-day process” that is to start with a televised speech to the nation that Sheik Hamad will deliver at 8 a.m. Tuesday local time, the Qatari official said, followed an hour later by an event known as a “mubaya,” in which prominent citizens welcome his successor. The new emir is expected to deliver his first speech on Wednesday, the same day the cabinet is to resign and the new one, minus at least Prime Minister Hamad, is to be sworn in. |
| Eighteen years ago, Sheik Hamad, then in his early 40s, deposed his own father in a bloodless coup that began the transformation of Qatar from a well-heeled backwater into a fantastically rich modern country. Since then, the Qataris have wielded their great wealth to, as the scholar F. Gregory Gause III of the Brookings Institution put it, “punch above their weight.” | |
| Sheik Hamad’s 180-degree turn took a country that has fewer citizens than Reno, Nev., has residents and used its deep pockets to influence events from Morocco to the Philippines. It also won a controversial bid for the 2022 World Cup; dragged I. M. Pei out of retirement to make the Museum of Islamic Art a world-class institution rivaling the Louvre, at least architecturally; and most recently hosted an office for peace talks with the Taliban that some claim is costing $100 million. Along the way, Qatari military aid helped topple an old friend of the emir’s, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, and is now taking aim at another former friend, Bashar al-Assad of Syria. | |
| Now, however, is the emirate in for another screeching about-face? | |
| As with so much in Qatar, just what will happen is opaque in the extreme — or as Mr. Roberts put it, “The sum total of rumor here isn’t really worth much.” For a country that brought the world Al Jazeera, it is notoriously secretive, with no real freedom of press at home. | As with so much in Qatar, just what will happen is opaque in the extreme — or as Mr. Roberts put it, “The sum total of rumor here isn’t really worth much.” For a country that brought the world Al Jazeera, it is notoriously secretive, with no real freedom of press at home. |
| Many Qataris privately say the abdication has been whispered about for months, though no one is clear why. One theory is health problems. The emir is known to have had two kidney transplants, and while still active, he has lost a lot of weight recently. | Many Qataris privately say the abdication has been whispered about for months, though no one is clear why. One theory is health problems. The emir is known to have had two kidney transplants, and while still active, he has lost a lot of weight recently. |
| But the Qatari official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to do so, said the emir’s decision to abdicate “has nothing to do with his health.” | |
| “He’s been working on this for the past three years,” the official said, adding: “He thinks this is a good time for the younger generation to take over. The emir himself was very young when he came to power 18 years ago, and he wants to continue that.” | “He’s been working on this for the past three years,” the official said, adding: “He thinks this is a good time for the younger generation to take over. The emir himself was very young when he came to power 18 years ago, and he wants to continue that.” |
| Many Qataris now see international interventions as a vital part of the country’s identity — and even an important protection for it. | |
| “We’re a very small country with tremendous wealth and a small population, but unfortunately we don’t live in Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood,” said Hassan al-Ansari, editor in chief of The Qatar Tribune. “For us, it’s a very effective way to have a say in the future of this neighborhood.” | |
| What works for Qatar is not just its great wealth and its willingness to spread it around, whether it is in mediating peace in Darfur and Eritrea or winning the release of 200 Moroccan hostages held by the Polisario Front, said Mustafa Alani of the Geneva-based Gulf Research Center. It is also that the emirate is too small to threaten anyone, he said. | What works for Qatar is not just its great wealth and its willingness to spread it around, whether it is in mediating peace in Darfur and Eritrea or winning the release of 200 Moroccan hostages held by the Polisario Front, said Mustafa Alani of the Geneva-based Gulf Research Center. It is also that the emirate is too small to threaten anyone, he said. |
| “Nobody fears Qatar that they have ambitions against them, because they are a very small country,” Mr. Alani said. “All they have to gain is publicity and respect — nothing beyond this.” | “Nobody fears Qatar that they have ambitions against them, because they are a very small country,” Mr. Alani said. “All they have to gain is publicity and respect — nothing beyond this.” |
| It has helped, too, that even in the midst of the Arab Spring, Qatar’s rulers have faced little internal criticism, at least in part because of generous social programs for citizens and a per-capita income that, at more than $100,000 a year, is the highest in the world. | |
| Qatar’s foreign critics have frequently pointed out the contradiction in the often clamorous support for freedom in other countries from an absolute monarchy, where the same family has ruled since the mid-1800s. | Qatar’s foreign critics have frequently pointed out the contradiction in the often clamorous support for freedom in other countries from an absolute monarchy, where the same family has ruled since the mid-1800s. |
| Last year, the government prosecuted a poet, Muhammad ibn al-Dheeb al-Ajami, for verses that mocked the royal family (“Sheiks playing on their PlayStations” was one line), under a constitutional ban on criticism of the emir; he was given life in prison, though that was shortened to 15 years on appeal. | |
| The emir and his prime minister have made up for chronic manpower shortages by personally taking a hand in many of their initiatives, most recently playing a high-profile role in persuading the Friends of Syria grouping to increase aid to Syrian rebels, including direct military aid from Qatar itself. | The emir and his prime minister have made up for chronic manpower shortages by personally taking a hand in many of their initiatives, most recently playing a high-profile role in persuading the Friends of Syria grouping to increase aid to Syrian rebels, including direct military aid from Qatar itself. |
| “These were two men with the same international perspective, the same gusto to go and do it, two amazingly atypical men who happened to come out of the same country,” Mr. Roberts said. | “These were two men with the same international perspective, the same gusto to go and do it, two amazingly atypical men who happened to come out of the same country,” Mr. Roberts said. |
| They have also not shied away from playing both sides of a rough street. In the process, nine Arab countries and Ethiopia have broken off relations with Qatar, often in protest at coverage by Al Jazeera, which is underwritten by the Qatari government to the tune of $200 million to $300 million annually, according to Mr. Alani. All those countries resumed relations in time. | They have also not shied away from playing both sides of a rough street. In the process, nine Arab countries and Ethiopia have broken off relations with Qatar, often in protest at coverage by Al Jazeera, which is underwritten by the Qatari government to the tune of $200 million to $300 million annually, according to Mr. Alani. All those countries resumed relations in time. |
| The Qataris have managed, as well, to have friends among hard-line Islamist groups — a State Department cable released through WikiLeaks criticized their timidity against terrorists — while at the same time serving as the longtime hosts of America’s biggest military base in the Middle East, the forward headquarters of the Pentagon’s Central Command, at Al Udeid Air Base. | The Qataris have managed, as well, to have friends among hard-line Islamist groups — a State Department cable released through WikiLeaks criticized their timidity against terrorists — while at the same time serving as the longtime hosts of America’s biggest military base in the Middle East, the forward headquarters of the Pentagon’s Central Command, at Al Udeid Air Base. |
| “The Qataris’ approach to things is very ambitious, punch above their weight, be involved in as many arenas as possible, but have that core American military relationship as their security backstop, and then have relationships with all sorts of groups and people,” said Mr. Gause, who is affiliated with the Doha office of Brookings. | “The Qataris’ approach to things is very ambitious, punch above their weight, be involved in as many arenas as possible, but have that core American military relationship as their security backstop, and then have relationships with all sorts of groups and people,” said Mr. Gause, who is affiliated with the Doha office of Brookings. |
| With so many irons in such a diversity of fires, the emir’s stand-down is something of a mystery. The biggest question is what will happen to Prime Minister Hamad. He has not only been foreign minister since 1992, before the emir seized power from his father, but is also widely viewed as the emir’s bagman in arranging that coup. | |
| “It is just inconceivable that H.B.J. could remain in office with a 33-year-old emir the age of his own sons,” said a longtime resident here, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, mindful of that clause in the Constitution that makes it a crime to criticize the emir. | |
| Less clear is what the abdicating emir himself will do. After he deposed his father while the father was out of the country on a vacation, he brought him back home. Now 80, the father still lives in retirement in Qatar, soon to be joined by the son who ousted him. | |
Robert F. Worth contributed reporting from Washington. | Robert F. Worth contributed reporting from Washington. |