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Kuwait Enters Reign of Continuity with New Emir, Crown Prince

Kuwait's new Emir Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah gestures as he arrives to take the oath of office at the country's parliament, in Kuwait City on September 30, 2020. (Reuters)
Kuwait's new Emir Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah gestures as he arrives to take the oath of office at the country's parliament, in Kuwait City on September 30, 2020. (Reuters)
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Kuwait Enters Reign of Continuity with New Emir, Crown Prince

Kuwait's new Emir Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah gestures as he arrives to take the oath of office at the country's parliament, in Kuwait City on September 30, 2020. (Reuters)
Kuwait's new Emir Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah gestures as he arrives to take the oath of office at the country's parliament, in Kuwait City on September 30, 2020. (Reuters)

Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah became last week the 16th emir of Kuwait and the sixth since its independence from Britain in 1961.

Sheikh Nawaf was born in Kuwait City on June 25, 1937. He is the sixth son of Kuwait’s 10th ruler, Sheikh Ahmad al-Jaber al-Mubarak al-Sabah, who ruled the Gulf state from 1921 to 1950. He is the stepbrother of two rulers: Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad (the 13th emir who ruled from 1977 to 2006) and Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad (the 15th ruler, who reigned from January 2006 to September 29, 2020).

Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad, who was named Crown Prince earlier this week, was born in Kuwait in 1940 and is the seventh son of ruler Ahmad al-Jaber.

The new Emir and Crown Prince share a long history in building Kuwait’s security and military agencies and have spent most of their careers in the security and defense fields.

Sheikh Nawaf is viewed as the real founder of Kuwait’s modern Interior Ministry. He was the interior minister for two terms, the first from 1978 to 1988 and the second from 2003 to 2006. Prior to assuming the post, he modernized the security institution to allow it to confront challenges facing the country. He also assumed the post of defense minister from 1988 to 1991, a period that witnessed the catastrophic Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

In the first government that was formed after Kuwait’s liberation, Sheikh Nawaf was named social affairs and labor minister before being appointed as deputy chief of the National Guard in 1994 and later returning to the interior ministry in 2003. He was named crown prince in 2006.

Sheikh Meshal studied at the Hendon Police College in the United Kingdom in 1960 before joining the interior ministry. He rose up the ranks to become head of the department of general investigation, a position he retained from 1967 to 1980 and is credited with strengthening its function as a state security service. He remained at the helm of the state security service for some 13 years.

In 2004, he was named by late Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad as deputy chief of the National Guard. Sheikh Meshal helped reform and reorganize the National Guard, strengthening it to become a main pillar of Kuwait’s armed forces. The National Guard has played a significant role in helping the government contain the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Identifying threats
During his swearing in speech before the National Assembly (parliament), Sheikh Nawaf identified the threats confronting Kuwait, the same that his predecessor Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad had always warned of. He said: “Kuwait has been exposed during its long history to serious challenges that we have succeeded in overcoming with cooperation.” He added: “Our nation today faces critical conditions and dangerous challenges that we can only overcome with unity and dedicated serious work for the sake of the people of Kuwait.”

Kuwait boasts a rich democracy and active political life that dates back to even before independence from Britain. It drafted its first written constitution and adopted its first shura council in 1921. In 1938, Kuwait was the first Gulf country to elect a legislature. It is also known for its parliamentary system, which was introduced by Sheikh Abdullah al-Salem al-Sabah. The constitution – the first in the Gulf - was also ratified during his reign. The constitution was announced in 1962 and officially adopted in 1963.

Kuwait’s democracy has been tested by regional challenges as a resource-rich country in a turbulent area. Sheikh Nawaf comes to power as the country grapples with an economy that has been impacted by the drop in global oil prices, the coronavirus pandemic, a budget deficit and liquidity crunch.

The country will soon witness National Assembly elections amid the absence of opposition figures, many of whom have been sentenced to prison over the storming of the parliament incident. Efforts had been underway in recent weeks for a pardon to be issued for the detainees, but to no avail.

The fight against corruption is also among the Emir and Crown Prince’s top priorities. In his last speech as crown prince in August, Sheikh Nawaf said that no member of the royal family is above the law should they be implicated in corruption. “Fighting corruption is not a choice, but a legitimate and constitutional duty and ethical responsibility,” he had said.

The economy remains the greatest challenge for the new ruler. Kuwait is suffering from a liquidity crisis that has prompted warnings that it will be unable to pay public employee salaries. In August, Finance Minister Barak Al-Sheetan called on the government to approve the public debt law that will allow the country to borrow 20 billion dinars, or 66 billion dollars, in 30 years. The liquidity crisis means that Kuwait may be unable to pay state salaries after October even though it boasts a large sovereign fund estimated at 550 billion dollars.

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Stay or Go? The Dilemma of Türkiye's Syrian Refugees 

For many Syrian refugees living in Türkiye, the idea of going home raises many worrying questions. (AFP)
For many Syrian refugees living in Türkiye, the idea of going home raises many worrying questions. (AFP)
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Stay or Go? The Dilemma of Türkiye's Syrian Refugees 

For many Syrian refugees living in Türkiye, the idea of going home raises many worrying questions. (AFP)
For many Syrian refugees living in Türkiye, the idea of going home raises many worrying questions. (AFP)

More than 50,000 Syrian refugees have left Türkiye to return home since Bashar al-Assad's ouster. But for many others living in the country, the thought raises a host of worrying questions.

In Altindag, a northeastern suburb of Ankara home to many Syrians, Radigue Muhrabi, who has a newborn and two other children, said she could not quite envisage going back to Syria "where everything is so uncertain".

"My husband used to work with my father at his shoe shop in Aleppo but it was totally destroyed. We don't know anything about work opportunities nor schools for the kids," she said.

After the civil war began in 2011, Syria's second city was badly scarred by fighting between the opposition and Russian-backed regime forces.

Even so, daily life in Türkiye has not been easy for the Syrian refugees who have faced discrimination, political threats of expulsion and even physical attacks.

In August 2021, an angry mob smashed up shops and cars thought to belong to Syrians in Altindag as anti-migrant sentiment boiled over at a time of deepening economic insecurity in Türkiye.

Basil Ahmed, a 37-year-old motorcycle mechanic, recalled the terror his two young children experienced when the mob smashed the windows of their home.

Even so, he said he was not thinking of going straight back.

- 'Not the same Syria' -

"We have nothing in Aleppo. Here, despite the difficulties, we have a life," he said.

"My children were born here, they don't know Syria."

As the Assad regime brutally cracked down on the population, millions fled in fear, explained Murat Erdogan, a university professor who specializes in migration.

"Now he's gone, many are willing to return but the Syria they left is not the same place," he told AFP.

"Nobody can predict what the new Syrian government will be like, how they will enforce their authority, what Israel will do nor how the clashes (with Kurdish fighters) near the Turkish border will develop," he said.

"The lack of security is a major drawback."

On top of that is the massive infrastructure damage caused by more than 13 years of civil war, with very limited electricity supplies, a ruined public health service and problems with finding housing.

At the SGDD-ASAM, a local association offering workshops and advice to migrants, 16-year-old Rahseh Mahruz was preparing to go back to Aleppo with her parents.

But she knew she would not find the music lessons there that she has enjoyed in Ankara.

- 'No emotional ties to Syria' -

"All my memories, the things I normally do are here. There's nothing there, not even electricity or internet. I don't want to go but my family has decided we will," she said.

Of the 2.9 million Syrians in Türkiye, 1.7 million are under 18 and have few emotional links to their homeland, said the association's director Ibrahim Vurgun Kavlak.

"Most of these youngsters don't have strong emotional, psychological or social ties with Syria. Their idea of Syria is based on what their families have told them," he explained.

And there may even be problems with the language barrier, said professor Erdogan.

"Around 816,000 Syrian children are currently studying in Turkish schools. They have been taught in Turkish for years and some of them don't even know Arabic," he said.

During a visit to Türkiye earlier this week, EU crisis commissioner Hadja Lahbib told AFP she shared "the sense of uncertainty felt by the refugees".

"The situation is unstable, it's changing and nobody knows which direction it will go in," she said.

"I've come with 235 million euros ($245 million) worth of aid for refugees in Syria and in the surrounding countries like Türkiye and Jordan, to meet them and see what worries them and how to respond to that," she said.

If there ends up being a huge wave of Syrians heading home, it will likely have an unsettling impact on certain sectors of Türkiye's workforce.

Although they are often paid low wages, commonly under the table, their absence would leave a gaping hole, notably in the textile and construction industries.

For Erdogan, the economic shock of such a shift could ultimately be beneficial for Türkiye, forcing it to move away from the exploitation of cheap labor.

"We cannot continue a development model based on exploitation," he said.