DUBAI — Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani, who as ruler of Qatar transformed the tiny Persian Gulf nation into a global player in diplomacy, media and investment, and then shattered tradition by voluntarily turning over power to his son, has died, state media reported. He was 74.
The state-run Qatar News Agency reported his death. It offered no cause.
Sheikh Hamad, who stepped down in June 2013 after 18 years as emir, was the architect of energy-rich Qatar’s ambitions that transformed it into an international crossroads in less than a generation. Qatar owns the Harrod’s department store in London and founded the powerful Al Jazeera satellite news network.
Qatar’s political reach today stretches from North Africa to Afghanistan, and it hosted the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the world’s most-watched soccer event. Hamad, though long out of power, received thunderous applause from Qataris attending its opening match.
But Qatar’s rise under Hamad rankled regional and Western allies with its independent-minded policymaking, including its close ties to Shiite powerhouse Iran, the Palestinian militant Hamas group and Egypt’s outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
Al Jazeera’s reporting, though a much-praised departure from the traditionally deferential habits of Arab media, was criticized and accused of slanting coverage to suit the views of Qatar’s rulers.
“The future lies ahead of you, the children of this homeland, as you usher into a new era where young leadership hoists the banner,” Hamad said as he announced his abdication and the carefully crafted transition to his son, the British-educated crown prince Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani, who was then 33.
Rare voluntary transfer of power
The peaceful, voluntary transfer of power was rare in a region where such change usually results from death or overthrow. Hamad himself seized control after deposing his father, Sheikh Khalifa, in a bloodless palace coup in 1995.
His abdication was seen as Qatar’s attempt to stay ahead of Arab Spring-inspired calls for democratic reforms and leadership more attuned to the region’s large and powerful young population. Qatar, a peninsula half the size of New Jersey, has a population of more than 3 million.
At the time, Hamad also was thought to have been in poor health for years. In December 2015, Qatari officials said he was flown to Switzerland for surgery after breaking a leg while on vacation.
Hamad attended Britain’s military academy Sandhurst and became commander of Qatar’s armed forces and defense minister. He was named crown prince in the late 1970s and gradually broadened his duties to include planning for Qatar’s vast oil and gas reserves.
Al Jazeera, a powerful voice in Arab media
After seizing power from his father, who then lived in exile for nearly a decade, Hamad quickly moved to open an inward-looking nation to outside influences, epitomized by Al Jazeera, which became a major force in global media.
Its reporting not only angered other Arab leaders, sometimes to the point of diplomatic rupture, it also riled Washington. Al Jazeera aired statements from the terrorism network Al Qaeda, even as Qatar hosted one of the key Pentagon logistical hubs after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the U.S.-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Hamad, meanwhile, aggressively sought international prestige through sports, an effort crowned by Qatar’s successful bid to host the World Cup, though marred by accusations that it used its huge wealth to woo poor countries’ support.
Qatar’s brand is also prominent across the sporting world from sponsorship deals with the Spanish football giant Barcelona to a majority stake in the football club Paris Saint-Germain.
Hamad also pushed Qatar Airways to expand into a major international carrier, trying to rival neighboring carrier Emirates. The country’s international airport in Doha, Qatar’s capital, which cost at least $15 billion to construct, also bears his name.
A powerhouse for diplomacy
Hamad had wide-ranging visions for Qatar’s role as a diplomatic broker. Over the years, its mediation was brought to bear on the conflict in Sudan’s western Darfur region, Lebanese factional feuding and the rift between the Palestinians’ Hamas and Fatah factions.
In October 2012, Hamad became the first head of state to visit the Gaza Strip since Hamas seized control five years earlier, promising $400 million in projects and investments. During the visit, Gaza radio stations played a song titled “Thank you, Qatar.”
Qatar also reached out to Hamas’ main foe, Israel. Hamad met in 2007 with Israel’s then-foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, at the United Nations General Assembly. Qatar allowed an Israeli trade office to operate in Doha until it was ordered closed in response to Israel’s attacks on Gaza in late 2008.
While neighboring Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates diplomatically recognized Israel in 2020, Qatar maintained its distance. Israelis at the World Cup also faced a multitude of Palestinian flags and anger over Israel’s occupation of lands Palestinians claim for their future state and its treatment of the people who live there.
During the Arab Spring, Qatar sent warplanes to the NATO-led missions in Libya against Moammar Kadafi’s forces and provided key military and financial aid to the successful Libyan rebels. In Syria, Qatar was a main political sponsor of the opposition to then-President Bashar Assad and led calls to increase the flow of weapons to the Syrian rebels.
However, its backing of Islamists like the Muslim Brotherhood has caused rifts with other nations in the region. Those tensions culminated under Sheikh Tamim, when Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE launched a years-long boycott of Qatar, in part over the policies of his father that continued during his rule.
In one of the last initiatives before Sheikh Hamad’s abdication, Qatar formally opened an office for Afghanistan’s Taliban, which set the stage for talks between the United States and the Taliban that ultimately led to the chaotic U.S.-NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
Gambrell writes for the Associated Press.
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