Bahrain’s longtime prime minister dies at 84

Nov 11, 2020

Bahrain’s Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, one of the world’s longest-serving prime ministers, has died at the age of 84.

Without specifying his cause of death, the official Bahrain News Agency announced that Prince Khalifa died Wednesday morning at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. The octogenarian prime minister flew in March to Germany for unspecified medical treatment. 

The tiny island state’s king, Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, ordered a week-long official mourning period for his uncle. Government offices will close for three days beginning Thursday, and flags will be flown at half-mast. A limited number of relatives will attend the funeral, the royal statement read. 

Prince Khalifa had served as prime minister since Sunni-led Bahrain declared its independence from Britain in 1971. Pro-democracy protesters called for his ouster during the Gulf country’s 2011 Arab Spring uprising, but the majority-Shiite demonstrations were ultimately suppressed with the help of neighboring Saudi Arabia. 

Bahrain, which is home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, recently agreed to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel as part of the Abraham Accords brokered by the Donald Trump administration. Sharing his condolences on Twitter, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayhu recognized Prince Khalifa’s role in securing the normalization deal. 

“I offer my personal condolences to his family,” Netanyahu said. “I appreciate the Prime Minister’s important contribution to achieving peace between our two countries.”

Sheikh Abdulla bin Rashid Al Khalifa, Bahrain’s ambassador to the United States, told Al-Monitor in this week’s “On The Middle East” podcast that he expects a visit from top Bahraini officials to Israel in the coming days. 

He also addressed the criticism from Palestinians that a deal with Israel undermines Bahrain’s longstanding commitment to a two-state solution, arguing that “interaction as opposed to exclusion” will better the chances of Middle East peace.  

“With the changing dynamics in the region, we do believe today peace has better chances of being achieved by extending the Arab hand to the Israelis,” the ambassador said. 

Kuwait’s Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah, another longtime Gulf ruler, died in September. The 91-year-old emir had also sought medical treatment at the world-renowned Mayo Clinic after undergoing an undisclosed surgery in Kuwait. 

Prince Khalifa’s death also follows the passing of veteran Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat on Tuesday. The top aide to President Mahmoud Abbas died at the age of 65 following compliactions from the coronavirus.