Emir tried to position tiny Kuwait as a peacemaker amid region of conflicts

‘‘He used the only two things at his disposal to try to silence dissent: money to try to buy them off, and power to try to crush them.’’

Sheik Sabah al-ahmad al-jaber alSabah, who has died aged 91, was the emir of Kuwait who used his influence as its top diplomat to help shape the United States-led war against Iraqi occupiers in 1991, and then as ruler tried to position his tiny country as a peacemaker amid political rifts and conflicts.

Sabah was part of a ruling dynasty dating back more than 250 years. His death leaves the bloc of Western-allied Persian Gulf Arab stateswithout one of its most experienced elder statesmen, at a time when the bloc’s members, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, are deeply divided by a feud that the Kuwaiti emir tried in vain to mediate.

The crown prince, Sabah’s half-brother,

Sheik Nawaf al

Ahmad al-sabah, has been closely involved in decision-making on all levels, including how to confront rising challenges by opposition forces in one of the region’s most open political systems. In June 2012, Sabah took the rare step of temporarily suspending parliament after months of tensions, including opposition lawmakers calling for direct questioning of the prime minister, one of Sabah’s nephews, over allegations of corruption.

The political showdowns began well before the Arab Spring uprisings but were amplified by the push for reforms across the region.

Sabah responded with amix of largesse – such as expanding the country’s cradle-tograve entitlements for citizens – and hard-line limitations. Like other Gulf states, Kuwait tightened media laws and arrested bloggers and others for social media posts perceived as denouncing the leadership.

‘‘In many ways, Sabah represented the wider issues confronting the Gulf rulers,’’ said Christopher Davidson, an expert in Persian Gulf affairs at Britain’s Durham University. ‘‘He used the only two things at his disposal to try to silence dissent: money to try to buy them off, and power to try to crush them.’’

Sabah came to power in 2006 in an unusual domino-style transition period after nearly 30 years of rule by Sheik Jaber al-ahmed alJaber al-sabah. Rule was first handed to an ailing family member, Sheik Saad Abdullah al-sabah, who was ousted just nine days later.

Sabah already had been directing much of the country’s day-to-day affairs for decades, dealing with pivotal issues such as helping run Kuwait’s government-in-exile during the nine-month occupation by Iraqi forces in 1990-91. ‘‘When the Iraqis invaded, we were in shock,’’ he said during a visit to Washington in 1990. ‘‘Then we got organised.’’

Sabah was born in Kuwait City, nearly a decade before oil was discovered, transforming a once-modest port into the region’s first petro-boomtown.

In the tradition of the time, Sabah was educated at local schools and later by private tutors. He was named foreign minister in 1963 – two years after Kuwait’s independence.

His rise spanned a golden era for Kuwait. In the 1970s, fuelled by oil revenue and Western ties, Kuwait was a leader in the Arab world on many fronts.

That role was transformed completely by the August 1990 invasion by Saddam’s forces after disputes over territory and oil. Sabah mobilised the technology of the day – faxes, telex and the emerging mobile-phone systems – to stitch together a network of Kuwaiti diplomats, activists and backers around the world. He likened his effort to the French resistance during World War II.

Among the most audacious – and later discredited – moves by Sabah’s diplomatic corps was an appearance by a Kuwaiti girl before a congressional human rights panel in October 1990. She claimed she witnessed Iraqi soldiers committing atrocities including pulling sick babies from incubators. It was later uncovered that she was the daughter of Kuwait’s ambassador to the US and her appearance had been organised by a PR firm.

The 1991 war left Kuwait as a hub for US military forces in the Gulf. After the 2001 terror attacks on New York and the Pentagon, Kuwait cleared the way for American ground forces to cross Iraq’s southern borders.

Sabah’s greatest challenges were within Kuwait’s borders. He faced growing pressures from opposition groups, from Islamists demanding stricter attention to sharia codes to liberals complaining that crackdowns on dissent threatened Kuwait’s standing as a forerunner in Arab world openness.

Well into his 80s, he toiled to maintain the cohesion of the Gulf Cooperation Council, the six-nation bloc of Gulf states, as it was buffeted by unprecedented, simultaneous crises, including civil war in Yemen. He also tried, and failed, to mediate disputes between Qatar and several Arab states, led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Sabah’s wife, Fatuwah bint Salman, died in 1990. He lived for years in a palace known as Dar Salwa, named after his daughter Salwa, who died of cancer in 2002. He also had two sons, Nasser and Hamad. – Washington Post