Jaber al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah

Jaber al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah (1926-2006), Emir of Kuwait (1977-2006). He was born the third son of Sheikh Ahmad al-Jabir al-Sabah, who ruled Kuwait from 1921 to 1950, and became involved in Kuwaiti government business from an early age. Following Kuwaiti independence from Britain, he became prime minister and finance minister (1962-1963) and established a system to retain a percentage of oil revenues for when the wells run dry. When his father's cousin Sheikh Sabah al-Salem al-Sabah became emir in 1965, Jaber became prime minister and, the following year, crown prince.

Upon Sabah’s death in 1977, Jaber succeeded him. His support for Iraq in the Iran-Iraq War made the country a target of Iranian terrorism. In 1983 a series of bombings targeted Kuwait City and in 1985 Jaber survived an assassination attempt. In 1990, Iraq's invasion of Kuwait forced him to flee the country and govern from exile in Saudi Arabia. After being restored to power following the Gulf War, Jaber instituted a controversial policy of expelling Palestinian residents, some of whom were accused of collaborating with Iraqi forces. Kuwait strengthened ties with Saudi Arabia and the United States and gained land as a result of war reparations from Iraq. Following his restoration, Jaber reconstituted the National Assembly—which had first sat between 1981 and 1986—and invited some of its members to sit in the Cabinet previously monopolized by the al-Sabah family.

The administration’s handling of the Iraqi invasion was criticized in an inquiry by the National Assembly in 1995—the administration’s attempts to appease the Iraqi government had failed—exacerbating tensions between the government and the assembly. The Kuwaiti government allowed US and British troops to launch the War on Iraq that deposed Saddam Hussein from Kuwait, one of the only Arab regimes to openly support the military action. In 2001 Jaber suffered a stroke and was rarely seen in public thereafter. In 2005 the National Assembly finally passed a law allowing women to vote and stand in elections—Jaber had first proposed the law in 1999. He was succeeded by his cousin Sheikh Saad al-Abdullah al-Salem al-Sabah, although nine days later he abdicated on grounds of ill health in favour of Jaber’s brother Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah.