Focus On Kuwait As State TV Hints At Death Of Member Of Royal Family

Kuwait's state television channel has switched its programming to the reciting of Koranic verses, often signifying the death of a senior member of the royal family.

• Emir Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah (91) has been in hospital in the United States since July having had surgery in Kuwait.
• Following the Emir's hospitalisation, a minister of the Royal Court stated that Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah (83) had temporarily assumed some of the Emir's responsibilities.
• There remain uncertainties over the succession plan in Kuwait, where the two senior branches of the ruling Sabah family usually rotate power. Both the current Emir and the Crown Prince hail from the Jaber branch, as does the man tipped to take over as Crown Prince, the current Emir's eldest son Sheikh Nasser Sabah.
• There is, though, no guarantee of who will succeed the current Crown Prince, leaving the stage open for behind-the-scenes power struggles should the Salem branch of the Sabah family seek to exert its influence.
• All this comes at a time when the Kuwaiti economy is in a period of extreme uncertainty amidst sustained low oil prices.