Shaikh Tamim has a close alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood
London: Qatar is preparing to begin a
leadership transition this summer in which the emir will relinquish
power to his son, and his cousin, the owner of Harrods, will step down
as prime minister.
Senior figures in Qatar have
briefed foreign counterparts that the time has come for Shaikh Tamim Bin
Hamad, the 33-year-old crown prince, to take over the leadership of the
Gulf state, The Daily Telegraph has learnt.
Shaikh Hamad Bin Jasem, the
prime minister and one of the biggest investors in Britain, will give up
his post. The royal court will then announce that the 61-year-old emir,
Shaikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, who has struggled with health
problems, will cede powers to the Sandhurst-educated crown prince.
A British source close to
the Gulf state was told of the plans earlier this year. Sources said
other key states, including the US and Iran, have also been briefed
about the succession.
“The plan is to manage a
staged handover of power that allows the crown prince to come to the
fore,” said one source with knowledge of the discussions. “The stakes
are very high because Qatar is at [the] forefront of events in a very
sensitive region.”
Representatives of the Qatari
government were not able to comment on the discussions about the
leadership but analysts said any changes in leadership would have huge
implications for the Middle East and Western foreign policy.
“The legacy
of the emir and the prime minister has been to make Qatar a player in
the world,” said Michael Stephens, a Gulf researcher at the Royal United
Services Institute. “It was an outpost when they took over and now it
has grown into a modern city. It is one of the biggest investors in
Europe and Britain, has set up a very powerful Arab television station
[Al Jazeera] and has a very prominent foreign policy. That is almost all
down to the driving force of those two men.”
Shaikh Hamad, the emir, took
power in a bloodless coup in 1995 while his father was on a trip to
Europe. His wife Shaikha Mouza, who attended a charity function with the
Prince of Wales at Windsor Castle last week, has been a symbol of
women’s rights in the Arab world. Shaikh Hamad Bin Jasem will remain
chief executive of the Qatar Investment Authority, a sovereign wealth
fund that recycles the emirate’s gas revenues, and will continue to be
the driving force behind the entity that owns Harrods.
Although Shaikh Tamim is well
known to diplomats and foreign officials, there are questions over
policies under the new leadership. Military observers point to his close
alliance with the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood as a potential sign that
he will not be as liberal as his father and the prime minister.
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