Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, March/April 2020, p. 72
By Sami Tayeb
Qaboos bin Said, 79, Sultan of Oman, died Jan. 10 after serving as Oman’s leader for the past five decades—the longest serving leader in the Arab world. He came to power in 1970 when he overthrew his father in a bloodless coup that was backed by the British. After quelling leftist rebels who sought to rid the Arabian Peninsula of British influence in the Dhofar region of the country in 1976, Sultan Qaboos embarked on a campaign to modernize the country through its oil wealth. Over decades of development in infrastructure, education and healthcare, Oman was the fastest rising country on the United Nations Human Development Index in the last 40 years.
During Sultan Qaboos’s tenure, Oman served as a backchannel for negotiations and diplomacy for different countries due to maintaining a foreign policy independent of other countries in the region. One of the most notable accomplishments of this foreign policy was being an initial broker in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or the Iran nuclear deal with the U.S., in 2015 by covertly hosting American and Iranian delegations in 2013.
The official cause of the Sultan’s death was not reported by the Oman News Agency, but since 2014 Sultan Qaboos was seeking cancer treatment in Europe. Since he was married briefly with no children, a successor was not readily apparent upon his death. As per Omani law, if a successor cannot be agreed upon by the family council, the council is to open a sealed envelope with the Sultan’s choice. On the day of the Sultan’s passing, the envelope revealed his heir to be his cousin, Haitham bin Tariq Al Said. More about Sultan Qaboos’ life and legacy will appear in the next issue of the Washington Report.
General Ahmed Gaïd Salah, 79, a senior leader in the Algerian People’s National Army and de facto leader of Algeria, died of a heart attack in Algiers on Dec. 23, 2019. General Gaïd Salah started his military career fighting in the National Liberation Army against the French during the Algerian War. Over the years, he rose through the ranks of the army to become a general, and in the early 2000s he formed a strong alliance with former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
Despite Gen. Gaïd Salah’s support for the longtime president, it was he who compelled Bouteflika to step down in April 2019 after months of mounting pressure by Hirak protesters calling for new elections and a complete change of the political system. Two weeks before Gen. Gaïd Salah’s death, the military’s preferred candidate, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, was elected to be the new president—an election and outcome that protesters rejected. In an attempt to ease public tension, Gen. Gaïd Salah had Bouteflika’s brother, businessmen associated with Bouteflika and former prime ministers and ministers arrested. Gen. Gaïd Salah was buried on Dec. 25 in Algiers.
Shahla Riahi, 92, Iran’s first female film director, died on Dec. 31, 2019 of Alzheimer’s in Tehran. Riahi began her acting career when she was 17 and was featured in over 70 films. In 1956, she directed the black-and-white film, “Marjan,” about a tribe of gypsies that settle near a village. Riahi was also a radio and television broadcaster, voice actress and appeared in several television series.
Garbis Zakaryan, 90, Türkiye’s first professional boxer, died Jan. 25. Coming from a modest background, the Armenian-Turkish boxer, known as “iron fist,” started his boxing career in 1944 at the age of 24. In 1951, he became Türkiye’s first professional boxer, with a career spanning 22 years, and won many local and amateur titles in Europe and the Middle East. He was buried in Istanbul’s Sisli Armenian Cemetery on Jan. 29.
Lina Ben Mhenni, 36, Tunisian activist, educator and blogger, died Jan. 27 from a chronic illness. The Nobel Peace Prize nominee was internationally recognized for her work during the 2011 Tunisian Revolution and her blog, A Tunisian Girl, that covered the revolution and the events following it. One of the few bloggers to use her real name, Ben Mhenni’s blog was censored by the Ben Ali regime until he was ousted in 2011. After the revolution, her work focused on democracy, press freedom and human rights issues in the country.
Mustafa Kassem, 54, died Jan. 14 after spending six years in an Egyptian prison. Kassem, a U.S. citizen, was arrested in 2013 when Egyptian security forces raided a square when Muslim Brotherhood supporters staged a sit-in in Cairo. Despite ongoing talks to release him to the U.S., Kassem died of a heart attack during a hunger strike. The U.S. assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, David Schenker, called Kassem’s death “needless, tragic and avoidable.”
