World leaders traveled Sunday to Oman to meet the country's new sultan, named just a day earlier after the death of the nation's longtime ruler Sultan Qaboos bin Said.
Kuwait's ruling emir, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, arrived in Muscat to meet the new ruler, Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al Said.
Other Arab leaders who made the journey included Yemen’s President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, Tunisian President Kais Saied, as well as Qatar's ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. A member of Sudan’s transitional council, Hassan Mohammed Idriss, also traveled to Oman to meet the new sultan.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Prince Charles, as well as former French President Nicolas Sarkozy also met Sultan Haitham.
Sultan Haitham was Oman’s culture minister before being named as the successor to Sultan Qaboos, the Middle East’s longest-ruling monarch whose death was announced Saturday. He died at the age of 79 after years of an undisclosed illness.
Sultan Haitham, 66, has pledged to follow Sultan Qaboos' example of promoting peace and dialogue in the Middle East.
Oman has served as an interlocutor between Iran and the US, which are facing a level of unprecedented tensions. Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif traveled to Muscat on Sunday as well to meet Sultan Haitham.
