FM Qureshi visits Oman to condole over Sultan Qaboos' demise

MUSCAT: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Monday visited Oman to condole over the death of the country’s ruler Sultan Qaboos bin Said, one of the Middle East’s longest-serving rulers, ARY NEWS reported.

The foreign minister was welcomed at the Muscat International Airport by country’s ambassador to Oman and officials of the Omani foreign affairs.

The foreign minister would meet the members of the royal family on Tuesday and condole with them over the demise of Sultan Qaboos bin Said.

Sultan Qaboos bin Said, who died late on Friday, transformed Oman during his 49-year reign from a poverty-stricken country torn by dissent into a prosperous state and an internationally trusted mediator for some of the region’s thorniest issues.

He became sultan in July 1970 after deposing his father in a palace coup with the aim of ending the country’s isolation and using its oil revenue for modernisation and development.

Qaboos, 79, never publicly named a successor but secretly recorded his choice in a sealed letter should the royal family disagree on the succession line. “I have already written down two names, in descending order, and put them in sealed envelopes in two different regions,” he said in a 1997 interview.

State television said his cousin Haitham bin Tariq al-Said was named sultan on Saturday after the high military council called on the ruling family council to choose a successor. The family had followed Qaboos’ written recommendation, believing in “his wisdom and vision”, a military council statement said.

State media did not disclose the cause of death. Qaboos, who has dominated decision making in the Gulf state for decades, had been ailing for years and was in Belgium in December for treatment.