Qatar’s former leader Hamad bin Khalifa dies: Statement

DOHA – Qatar’s Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the former Qatari emir who turned his country into one of the wealthiest in the world, has died.

He was nearly 74.

Sheikh Hamad died the morning of July 12, the Amiri Diwan seat of rule said in a post on X. It did not provide a cause of death.

Sheikh Hamad overthrew his father in a bloodless coup in 1995, and ruled for 18 years before peacefully handing power to his son Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

In that time, the country went from shipping its first cargo of liquefied natural gas in 1996 to becoming the world’s largest exporter of LNG.

Hamad parlayed these riches into global influence and unrivaled wealth for his citizens.

Born in 1952, Sheikh Hamad studied at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in Britain and joined the Qatar Armed Forces in 1971.

Named heir apparent in 1977, Hamad gradually accumulated responsibilities for the country’s day-to-day affairs, including its oil and natural gas production.

In 1995, Sheikh Khalifa tried to claw back some of his son’s powers, and Hamad took the opportunity to seize power while his father was in Switzerland, ordering tanks and military personnel to surround the Amiri Diwan, according to Allen Fromherz in “Qatar: A Modern History.” Counter-coups fed by Khalifa were unsuccessful.

Hamad, who took power at the age of 44, was seen from the start as a modernising influence, both in the Gulf region and inside Qatar.

The young emir attempted to introduce some limited democratic reforms; Hamad organised Qatar’s first municipal elections in 1999, and approved a Constitution that was ratified in 2004.

But promises by Hamad and his successor to carry out more sweeping legislative elections still haven’t born fruit.

Under Hamad’s reign, Qatar’s economy grew more than 20-fold, climbing to US$199 billion (S$257.27 billion) in 2013, according to World Bank data.

As money flowed into the country from gas exports, Hamad began setting aside some of the profits for investment and established the Qatar Investment Authority in 2005.

Under the supervision of Hamad’s close adviser Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, better known as HBJ, QIA invested at home and abroad, particularly in sectors outside hydrocarbon industries.

The fund capitalised on market distress around the global financial crisis to buy stakes in some of the world’s biggest companies including British bank Barclays Plc and Volkswagen AG.

In 2010, the fund purchased the iconic Harrods departments store in London.

Inside Qatar’s borders, building projects Hamad approved have helped transform its capital city of Doha from a small town into a glittering cosmopolitan outpost, albeit one that’s smaller than nearby Dubai.

Hamad and his wife Sheikha Moza bint Nasser Al Misnad invited US universities including Georgetown, Texas A&M and Carnegie Mellon to set up campuses in the emirate.

In 2010, Qatar became the first Middle East country awarded the right to host the World Cup of soccer in 2022.

Hamad’s decision to extend a US$500 million loan to support Al Jazeera in 1996 may have been one of his most momentous.

The Doha-based news network started generating regional and international controversy almost from the outset, as one of the first Arab-language programmes to offer criticism of neighbours’ internal politics, though it reports sparingly on local affairs.

The ruler’s geopolitical policies also occasionally put him at odds with his own allies.

He invited the US to establish the biggest American air base in the region while maintaining cordial relations with Iran.

He permitted Israel, until the 2009 Gaza War, to operate a trade office while simultaneously maintaining close ties with the Palestinian Hamas movement.

When uprisings broke out across the Arab World in 2011, Hamad backed the protest movements.

Qatar supported uprisings in Syria and sent warplanes to fight Muammar Qaddafi’s forces in Libya.

Qatar lent US$8 billion to support Egypt’s first Islamist government headed by Mohamed Mursi following the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

The country’s rising influence wasn’t always welcomed and helped forge deeper divides close to home.

Protesters in Libya and Egypt burned Qatari flags, angered over Sheikh Hamad’s backing of Islamist movements in their countries.

Egypt’s military overthrew Mursi just days after Hamad’s abdication, and Qatar’s efforts to support rebel groups in Syria floundered as Islamic State and Bashar Al Assad’s Syrian Army dug in.

Hamad’s support for these movements set the stage for diplomatic disputes with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt that have come to define the reign of Hamad’s son Tamim.

While a 2014 spat was resolved after eight months, the quartet suspended trade and diplomatic relations with Qatar in 2017 for more than three years. BLOOMBERG